Vietnam Seen as Promising Tourism Market for M'sia, Thailand
Vietnam Seen as Promising Tourism Market for M'sia, Thailand
Senior tourism officials of Malaysia and Thailand, which are among attractive regional destinations for Vietnamese holiday makers, said Vietnam was a promising tourism market.
The Malaysian and Thai tourism authorities have set targets to lure more tourists from Vietnam, they said at the ASEAN Tourism Forum (AFT) in Malaysia's Langkawi ending on Saturday.
Suraphon Svetasreni, deputy governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said Vietnamese tourist arrivals in Thailand were growing steadily and that there was still great potential for growth.
Although Vietnam was not among the top three ASEAN tourism markets for Thailand last year, Suraphon said the number of Vietnamese visiting Thailand leapt strongly.
On the same side, Kamaruddin Siaraf, director general of Tourism Malaysia, said the large population and sharp economic growth had made Vietnam a major tourism market for Malaysia.
"Vietnam is emerging as our potential market for the simple reason that it has a population of 80 million and is Southeast Asia's fastest growing economy. If only 5 per cent of the population go to Malaysia, we will have four million tourists," Siaraf said.
Meanwhile, Malaysia and Thailand are now listed among Vietnam’s 15 largest tourism markets. Last year, nearly 49,150 Malaysian and 46,520 Thai people visited Vietnam, up 15.4 per cent and 33.7 per cent on-year, respectively, according to Vietnam’s official statistics.
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