Top travel think-tanks from Vietnam and Russia have agreed to deal with problems related to visa-granting procedures at international gates, particularly on the Russian side, to fully tap tourism potential.
The problems were raised at a working session between the General Director of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) Hoang Tuan Anh and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, in Moscow on March 19.
Anh is leading a Vietnamese delegation to Intourmarket 2007 from March 18-23, and an international travel and tourism exposition from March 21-24 in Russia.
Host and guest shared the view that the number of Russian arrivals in Vietnam has consistently increased and that the two countries' potential in tourism and other fields is vast.
Currently, the number of Russian tourists traveling to Vietnam stands at just 30,000 people per year, while the number traveling to Thailand and Singapore reaches hundreds of thousands.
As Russia’s demand for tourism increases, Vietnam needs to improve its tourism environment to attract more Russian tourists, Strzhalkovsky, Director of the Federal Russian Agency on Tourism said, suggesting VNAT further intensify promotional campaigns in Russia, while pledging to support such efforts from Vietnam.
The two sides also discussed Russian language training for Vietnamese tour guides.
In a prompt response, the VNAT chief executive and Vietnamese charge d'affaires ad interim Nguyen Ngoc Binh co-sponsored a conference on Vietnam tourism promotion involving Government representatives and travel agency executives from Russia.
Tuan affirmed VNAT considers Russia a key market and expressed wishes for further development of bilateral cooperation in this field.
Vietnam greeted more than 10,000 Russian tourists in the first two months of 2007, up 31.7 per cent on-year. (Vietnam & World Economy)
Vietnamese
