Vietnam really wants Malaysia to share experience on how to manage and boost its tourism industry, Vo Thi Thang, Chief of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) emphasized in a reception for Malaysian Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor during his visit to promote the Visit Malaysia Year 2007 in Vietnam.
“Malaysia tourism growth is a good lesson for Vietnam,” she added, revealing that she was amazed by the growth of the tourism industry in Malaysia and requested its cooperation for assistance in training Vietnam’s officers to better develop, administer and manage the tourism industry.
At the meeting, Malaysian officials highlighted the tourism potential of Vietnam, requesting Vietnam to consider increasing the flight frequencies to Malaysia from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to tap tourism potential of the two countries.
"So far, there are only 21 weekly flights from Malaysia to Vietnam and 11 flights from Vietnam to our country. We hope the number can be increased so that more people from Vietnam come to Malaysia and vice versa," Tengku Adnan said.
Earlier, he held discussions with members of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organization (VUFO) who were led by its president, Vu Xuan Hong.
Among the matters focused on were promotions, where costs would be shared by Vietnam and Malaysia, to attract long-term tourists, especially from Europe, to visit both countries.
Tengku Adnan also said there was a year on year increase of about 25 per cent in the number of tourists from Vietnam to Malaysia during the first quarter of this year. Malaysia recorded more than 14,200 tourist arrivals from Vietnam between January and March 2006 from 11,350 over the same period last year.
“We are confident of getting 100,000 tourists from Vietnam this year and 200,000 during the Visit Malaysia Year 2007 period," he added.
Vietnam saw around 76,000 arrivals from Malaysia last year, and more than 45,000 in the first six months of this year.
Economy & Urban Area
Vietnamese
