Vietnam announced visa waiver programs for visitors from nine APEC economies bilaterally, and from three others unilaterally.

Ha Long Bay, Quang Ninh Province.

The High-level Policy Dialogue on Sustainable Tourism of the members of APEC just concluded on Monday in Ha Long city, Quang Ninh province. Members of Asia – Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) issued a statement, pledging to promote sustainable tourism for an inclusive and interconnected Asia-Pacific.

Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Huynh Vinh Ai hihglighted the significance of the statement and extended a message of strongly supporting principles and actions to promote sustainable tourism.

In the statement, members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) strongly support the principles and actions to promote sustainable tourism, include acknowledging that sustainable tourism development is a continuous process which requires constant impact monitoring, introduction of preventive or corrective measures, fostering regional and domestic tourism policies that support the sustainable development goals, and encouraging viable, long-term economic contributions of travel and tourism in providing socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders.

They concurred to improve regional and domestic tourism policies that support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and encourage viable, long-term economic contributions of travel and tourism in providing socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders.

The bloc proposed conducting further studies to enable APEC member economies to apply new advanced technologies for smart, sustainable and inclusive tourism development, especially in tourism human resource development and tourism management.

The APEC High Level Policy Dialogue on Sustainable Tourism is an initiative of Vietnam aiming to actualize the APEC Strategy for Strengthening Quality Growth and implement one of the four priorities of APEC cooperation in 2017 – which is promoting sustainable, innovative and inclusive growth.

In 2016, Vietnam hosted the fourth APEC Tourism Ministerial Meeting in central Quang Nam province's Hoi An city, which adopted the “Hoi An Declaration on the Promotion of APEC Tourism Cooperation”. The country has also regularly and actively participated in most important activities of APEC tourism cooperation and promoted bilateral ties with APEC member economies.

Established in 1989, APEC comprises 21 economies, including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the US and Vietnam.

Last year, travel and tourism directly contributed 1.3 trillion U.S. dollars to APECs gross domestic product and made up 6.1 percent of the regions exports. Moreover, every 10-percent increase in tourist arrivals in APEC economies is associated with a 1.2-percent rise in exports and a 0.8-percent hike in imports in the destination economy./.

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