The event, held by the three localities and the Malaysia – Vietnam Friendship Association, aims at luring more visitors from Malaysia – a key tourism market in the Southeast Asian region.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Deputy Director of Da Nang city’s Department of Tourism Nguyen Xuan Binh highlighted that Vietnam and Malaysia are celebrating their 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2013, which is significant for both sides to develop the relations in the future, including tourism.
In this context, the programme is expected to help the localities expand international tourism market, while popularising Vietnam’s heritage sites' tourism brand.
Charge d’affaires of the Vietnamese Embassy in Malaysia Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh stressed that tourism collaboration between the two sides has been developed on the basis of the Government-level Tourism Cooperation Agreement in 1994, with the opening of the Malaysian tourism promotion office in Vietnam and an array of promotion activities in both nations.
Malaysia is on the list of top 10 source markets for tourism in Vietnam, she said, adding the two nations boast huge potential for cooperation in the field.
Meanwhile, President of the Malaysian Association of Tourism and Travel Agents (MATTA) Nigel Wong Chun Teim stressed the tourism industry’s future has an important role to play for Vietnam, Malaysia and ASEAN as a whole, and affirmed MATTA’s commitment to continuing policy support in tourism cooperation with ASEAN and Vietnam in particular.
He expressed his hope that tourism cooperation between the two countries as well as within ASEAN will make a strong recovery in the future.
Within the framework of the event, the tourism promotion centres of Thua Thien-Hue, Da Nang and Quang Nam and the Malaysia – Vietnam Friendship Association signed a Memorandum of Understanding on communications cooperation to help Vietnam’s tourism products better penetrate into the Malaysian market.
