The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) and the Department of Tourism of Ho Chi Minh City held a seminar on promoting Indian and Middle East tourism on September 9 within the framework of the 16th Ho Chi Minh City International Tourism Expo (ITE HCMC 2022).
Statistics from Google Trends showed that the number of searches about Vietnam from the Indian market has been increasing. This reflects the demand from India, which has a population of more than 1.3 billion and will become the most populous country in the world by 2023 with more than 1.4 billion people.
By the year-end, there will be 21 direct air routes, with over 60 flights per week, connecting Vietnam with India.
There are also direct flights linking Vietnam’s major cities such as Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City with the capitals of Middle East countries.
VNAT Deputy General Director Ha Van Sieu said that India and the Middle East are considered potential markets that need to be prioritised in the Vietnam Tourism Development Strategy by 2030.
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At the seminar (Photo: VNA)
To attract more tourists from the Middle East and India, some experts and businesses participating in the seminar suggested that the Vietnamese tourism industry should regularly organise large-scale international tourism fairs and invite tour operators from Middle Eastern countries to attend; intensify communications about Vietnam's tourism sector such as broadcasting videos on regional television channels, and through travel bloggers and key opinion leaders, and join international tourism expos in the Middle East.
Tran Duc Hung, Vietnamese Ambassador to Qatar, said that tourists from the Middle East and India prefer to go to private beach resorts and combine traveling to find commercial and investment opportunities, and therefore prefer not to travel in tour groups.
