Vietnamese Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung talks with customers visiting Vietnam's booth at the TRAVEX 2024 International Tourism Fair. (Source: VNA)

Taking place from January 24-26, the TRAVEX 2024 International Tourism Fair attracted many businesses to participate. Along with businesses from countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Vietnamese localities and businesses were also present at the annual event, which is considered to be the largest in scale and professionalism in the ASEAN region, to promote Vietnamese tourism to international friends.

Vietnam Tourism’s booth at the fair covers an area of ​​54 square meters, with the participation of 5 localities (Dien Bien, Ninh Binh, Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Quang Binh) and 3 travel agencies. After only 2 days, Vietnamese businesses and localities participating in the fair have promoted and marketed many tourism products to many businesses in the ASEAN region and the world.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Chuyen, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Dien Bien province, said that this was the first time the province participated in the TRAVEX Fair and after only 2 days of participation, Dien Bien not only connected with a number of foreign businesses and press to learn about local tours, but also received connections from a number of businesses wishing to open tour routes in this province.

Similar to Dien Bien, Quang Binh's booth in recent days has always attracted a large number of foreign partners and reporters to visit and learn. Ms. Le Thi Ngoc Ha, Deputy Director of Quang Binh Province's Department of Tourism, said that many customers from Asia and Europe came to visit, exchange, cooperate and promise future tourism activities for visitors to Quang Binh.

Participating in this fair, the province connected about 50 units to share and exchange information to promote and promote activities accompanying Quang Binh tourism and expected that local tourism in the coming time will continue to receive the attention and experience of tourists.

A corner of Vietnam's booth at the Fair. (Source: VNA)

Figures from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism show that of the approximately 12.6 million international visitors to Vietnam in 2023, approximately 2.1 million will come from ASEAN member countries.

Therefore, in addition to promoting and attracting international tourists at Travex 2024, Vietnam also aims to increase the attraction of tourists within ASEAN, because with a population of about 670 million people, ASEAN is also a potential market for tourism and travel businesses of Vietnam in particular and countries in the region in general.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam Nguyen Van Hung shared that tourism within ASEAN is very necessary and convenient, because ASEAN countries not only have many similarities in culture and beautiful landscapes, but the people of ASEAN countries are also very friendly and hospitable.

These are advantages to attract domestic and foreign tourists to ASEAN and to do this, each country in the bloc needs to increase promotion to introduce this potential beauty.

Minister Nguyen Van Hung highly appreciated the participation of Vietnamese localities and enterprises in the fair, saying that this is an opportunity to promote the potential and strengths of Vietnamese tourism to international friends.

Not only contributing to promoting the image of the country, culture and people of Vietnam to international friends, Travex Fair 2024 is also an opportunity for businesses and localities to introduce Vietnam's tourist destinations, attracting more international tourists to the S-shaped strip of land, aiming to realize the goal of Vietnam welcoming 17-18 million international visitors in 2024.