As many as 40 countries, 221 exhibitors and 9,000 trade visitors took part in the first ever WTM at London Olympia in 1980. WTM London now facilitates 2.8 billion GBP (3.4 billion USD) in industry deals and has around 5,000 exhibitors from 182 countries and regions and more than 51,000 participants, according to its website.
Vietnamese businesses have partaken in the event for more than 10 consecutive years, except for 2020 and 2021 when it was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, displaying diverse tourism products and services.
Huyen Nguyen, Managing Director at Hanoi-based Go-Indochine, said WTM London offers a good opportunity to participating firms to maintain and promote relations with their traditional partners and seek new ones, and stay updated on the global tourism business trend.
She held that there should be a coordinating unit to effectively promote Vietnam’s tourism at such big events as WTM London.
Vietnam was honoured in 45 categories of the 2023 World Travel Awards, one of the leading tourism awards in Asia, which is dubbed as the “Oscars of Tourism”. The country was named Asia’s Leading Destination for the fifth time and Asia’s Leading Nature Destination for the second time in a row.
Its total revenue from tourism is estimated at 582.6 trillion VND (23.7 billion USD) in the first 10 months of this year, according to the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism.
In the period, the country welcomed 10 million foreign tourists, exceeding the target of 8 million for the whole year, and served 98.7 million domestic holiday-makers. In October alone, the tourism sector served 1.11 million foreign visitors and 5.2 million domestic tourists.
