Travel agents report record half-year figures

The tourism industry has earned 62 trillion VND (roughly 3.038 billion USD) from providing services for almost 2.97 million international tourists and 17.5 million local holidaymakers in the first half of 2011.
Nguyen Van Tuan, General Director of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), attributed the all-time high in both the number of clients and revenues to the diversity of promotion campaigns.
He cited the Ha Long carnival week, an international firework contest in Da Nang city, Khanh Hoa marine tourism week, the international wind surfing festival in Binh Thuan province and the freshly launched national year of central southern coastal tourism in Phu Yen province.
Tuan told reporters in Hanoi on July 5 at the launch of the TV programme “Impressive Vietnam” that the 45-minute footage is another effort of VNAT to improve the national image presented to the international community.
“The programme is scheduled to run for five years up to 2015, in the interest of sustainable development of the tourism industry,” said the travel industry leader.
The production team will travel to all sites of cultural and historic interest and beauty spots of all parts of the country to introduce these unique attractions to audiences nationwide, he added.