Speaking at a conference on identifying solutions to help the tourism industry make breakthroughs in 2024, hosted by the Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper on March 12, Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh, Head of the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism (VNAT), announced that the first tourism promotion office overseas will soon open in Laos.

Vietnam’s tourism industry aims to serve 17-18 million foreign visitors and 110 million domestic travelers this year, he told the gathering. One of the many solutions identified to reach this goal is tourism planning for the 2025-2030 period and vision to 2045, which VNAT has recently completed and is now waiting for final approval from the Prime Minister. This outlines the goals and directs the development of the industry as a whole.

According to Mr. Khanh, VNAT also needs to change its approach to tourism promotion based on segments such as community tourism, medical tourism, rural tourism, MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions) tourism, golf tourism, and rail tourism, among others.

To achieve this necessitates the opening of tourism promotion offices overseas. As this is an area where Vietnam lags behind other countries, its first promotion office will be opened in the Lao capital Vientiane to also connect with visitors from Thailand and Cambodia.

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Ky, Chairman of Vietravel Holding, suggested that while waiting for the opening of promotion offices in other countries, the tourism industry could take advantage of existing representative offices of Vietnamese travel agencies. For example, Vietravel Holdings currently has offices in the US, Australia, France, and a new location in India.

Last year Vietnam welcomed 12.6 million foreign arrivals, up 340 per cent year-on-year, and catered to 108 million domestic travelers, 5.8 per cent higher.