Vietnam’s tourism potential and opportunities were spotlighted at a seminar held at the Vietnamese Cultural Centre in Paris on November 16, VNA reported.

This is an activity within the framework of Vietnam Culture and Tourism Week in France organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism with the participation of Minister Nguyen Van Hung on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of establishing the Vietnam - France relationship and 10 years of the strategic partnership.

The event was attended by Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung, Vietnamese Ambassador to France Dinh Toan Thang, Director of the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism (VNAT) Nguyen Trung Khanh, and representatives of travel firms in France.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung speaks at the seminar.

In his opening remarks, Khanh laid stress on the country’s rich endowments of natural resources and culture, which have been capitalized on to boost sustainable tourism development.

He went on to say that an array of Vietnamese destinations and tourism offerings have been highly rated by some of the world’s renowned travel sites and media giants such as the World Travel Awards, TripAdvisor, or Telegraph, CNN, and BBC.

Travel between Vietnam and France has been promoted on the back of bilateral cooperative agreements and direct flights that help connect big cities and travel hubs of both sides, he said, adding the Vietnamese tourism sector has organized an array of promotion activities in France to enhance exchanges of visitors between the two sides.

The Vietnamese Government’s visa exemption for French visitors since 2015, and the recent extension of visa-free stays to 45 days, coupled with easy immigration procedures, attractive tourism products, and locals’ hospitality are ideal conditions to enhance tourism activities, he said.

At the seminar to promote Vietnam's tourism potential and opportunities.

Expressing their wish to increase the number of French tourists to Vietnam, many French travel firms proposed measures for Vietnam’s tourism to develop more strongly not only in France but also in other markets.

Guillaume Linton, General Director of Asia Voyage which has run tours to Vietnam over the past 35 years, said inviting journalists, professional tour operators, and tourism partners to discover new tours in Vietnam will help them gain a better insight into the country’s cultural identity.

Meanwhile, Anoa Suzanne Dussol, Vietnamese Tourism Ambassador to France, said she wants to branch out business and conference tours to bring more French enterprises to northern mountainous areas.

She said the combination of culture, tourism, and enterprises will benefit all stakeholders.

In the framework of the forum, delegates witnessed the handover of cooperation minutes between Vietravel’s branch in France and Vietnam Airlines; and the Vietnamese Cultural Centre and the association for Vietnamese culture and tourism promotion in France and Europe.

Delegates witnessed the handover of cooperation minutes between Vietravel’s branch in France and Vietnam Airlines; and the Vietnamese Cultural Centre and the association for Vietnamese culture and tourism promotion in France and Europe.

The European Union is a traditional market for Vietnamese tourism with 2.17 million tourists in 2019, accounting for 12% of the total number of visitors to Vietnam. Of which, French tourists to Vietnam reached 290 thousand, an increase of 3% compared to 2018, ranking 2nd among Vietnam's largest international tourist markets in the European Union.

In the first 10 months of 2023, there were 169,820 French visitors to Vietnam. Currently, over 300,000 Vietnamese people are living and working in France, many of whom have high professional qualifications and are good experts, actively contributing to the prosperous development of the host country.

Earlier, in Toulouse city of France, a scientific seminar on promoting the value of archaeological heritage and an exhibition entitled “From the Underground to the Museum: A Journey of Artifacts” were held by Thang Long-Hanoi Heritage Conservation Centre.

The events were part of a cooperation project between Hanoi capital of Vietnam and Toulouse city on technical assistance to preserve and promote typical urban heritage values and archaeological relics at the royal citadel, which has been launched since 2020 with funding from the French Development Agency and Toulouse.

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