Vietnam India tourism and aviation cooperation will take place on November 29th in Hanoi. The event is in the framework of FAM TOUR program for Indian travel and press. This is an opportunity to learn and to promote the tourism relations between the two countries. Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has invited 22 leading travel agents and journalists of India to Vietnam to attend this conference. The conference also received the cooperation of airlines such as Jet Airways and Vietnam Airlines. Speaking at the press conference, Ambassador of India in Vietnam, Ms. Preeti Saran said, this was one of activities as the realization of contents of this cooperation between Vietnam and India. In particular, cooperation development in tourism and aviation is an important content to be exchanged during the visit of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to India in early last November. And at the same time, tourism and aviation are two priority areas of cooperation of two sides.
With a population of over 1.2 billion people, and a member of new emerging economies, India is an attractive tourist market. Every year, millions of Indians travel abroad, and India becomes the fastest growing outbound travel market today. In terms of absolute figures, the number of Indian tourists traveling abroad only ranks behind that of China. The number of Indian tourists visiting abroad is expected to increase from 15 million (current figure) to 50 million by 2020. Indian tourists traveling to the Asia-Pacific region spend just about 13.3 billion dollars annually. This figure is expected to rise to 91 billion US dollars in 2030, takes visitors India became one of the biggest spending after China on the world tourism market. However, the current figure of Indian tourists to Vietnam has stopped at 10,000. This is, according to Ms. Preeti Saran's assessment, “below potential development." Lack of direct flights and information on Vietnam tourism market is the main reason why the number of Indian tourists to Vietnam is modest. Vietnam National Administration of Tourism aims to raise the number of visitors of India to Vietnam from 10,000 to 100,000 people in the near future.
Currently, along with Vietnam tourism cooperation with India, air travel connecting two countries has been cleared for the event on November 5, 2014 when Jet Airways launched a direct route connecting New Delhi and Mumbai via Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh City. Jet Airways will also have flights to Hanoi, cities of ASEAN, Sydney and Melbourne of Australia. The opening of direct routes will help promote cooperation between India and Vietnam in many fields, including tourism. Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet Air are also expected to start direct flights to India, including to Bodh Gaya. The remaining task is that Vietnam must have strategy for promoting tourism in Vietnam, promulgating images of Vietnam to partners and more Indian tourists in the future. Deputy General Director under Vietnam National Administration of Tourism said in the framework of the FAM Tour, the Vietnamese travel agency would take travel agents and journalists of India to the top Vietnam destinations such as Ho Chi Minh City, Mekong River Delta, Hanoi, Halong Bay and other places to explore and learn more about the tourist attractions in Vietnam.
And in particular, the conference witnesses the presence of 22 Indian tour operators, travel agents in Vietnam, and representatives of the localities with high tourist development such as HCMC, Hanoi, Khanh Hoa, Quang Ninh, Quang Nam, and Da Nang... This event will be a very good chance for long-term cooperation programs in order to create a turning point for tourism, and aviation of two countries in the future.