VietNamNet Bridge – The ASEAN Tourism Investment forum will take place in HCMC as part of the annual International Travel Expo slated for September 30 to October 2 at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center in District 7, the organizer said.
La Quoc Khanh, deputy director of HCMC’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, told the Daily on Tuesday that the organizing committee had held the forum for Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam in the last event. However, the committee has decided to expand the forum’s scale to all ASEAN countries as host Vietnam serves as chair of ASEAN in 2010.
Under the theme "Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, the three countries, one destination," the travel expo will feature a tourism exhibition, meetings between travel buyers and sellers, free-show tours and seminars.
The organizer has invited Myanmar’s tourism minister to join discussions on cooperation with the tourism ministers of the three Indochina countries. Such agencies expect to reach common ground on tourism cooperation for the four countries.
"If the agencies agree to joint activities to tout the four countries as a common destination for international tourists we can start a new move to create a new theme for the next travel expo," Khanh said.
He said tourism agencies of Vietnam and Myanmar had since early this year started the first cooperation activity. Flights that link the two destinations are now available, so tourism stakeholders can further expand cooperation to include Laos and Cambodia to promote the single destination to woo international travelers.
At the event in 2007, the tourism ministers of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia inked a joint declaration on tourism cooperation to make the three countries a common destination for international tourists.
Regarding this year’s event, Khanh said the organizing committee was calling for registrations from exhibitors and international travel buyers. Eight airlines have agreed to support to the event.
More than 200 buyers from 41 destinations have registered to join the event along with buyers invited by the organizers, he said, and around 160 buyers would be selected due to limited space, up 50 from last year.
The city’s tourism department is also collaborating with IIR Exhibitions Pte Ltd and VINEAX to organize the international travel expo.
VietNamNet/SGT
