The Vietnamese government official made this statement while addressing the opening of an international conference on tourism and sports, held on the sidelines of the 5th Asian Beach Games (ABG5) in Da Nang on September 24.
The event was attended by over 200 delegates from several countries, the World Tourism Organisation, businesses operating in tourism and sport and representatives from relevant Vietnamese ministries, central agencies and locales.
Deputy PM Dam stressed that after the Barcelona Declaration of 2001 by the World Tourism Organisation and the International Olympic Committee, cohesion between sport and tourism has become a very important driving force for development and has benefited a lot of countries and people.
Considered the economic sector with the most robust growth in many countries, tourism currently contributes around 10% of GDP and 4% of global exports. Similarly, sport is seen as the world’s number-one entertainment industry, with a faster growth than other sectors.
Through tourism and sport and their combination, everyone and every visitor could have the opportunity to rise in life and surpass himself, to explore the world and to conquer new heights together, thereby having a more meaningful life, said the deputy PM.
Affirming Vietnam’s plans to turn tourism into a key economic sector, Deputy PM Dam expressed his belief that the experiences and lessons shared at the conference would bring impetus to the country to build and implement new tourism development programmes, including sports/tourism combination products.
Discussion at the conference focused on exchanges and experience sharing on the development of tourism and sport, including the development trend of tourism in association with sporting activities to contribute to sustainable development.
The conference is scheduled to adopt the Da Nang Declaration on the sustainable development of tourism and sport, which is aimed at drawing the attention of relevant governments, businesses, people and communities in developing and implementing policies to attract investment to boost the development of tourism and sport.
