The information was given at the 5th Conference of Senior Tourism Officers of the Ayeyawady – Chao Phraya – Mekong Countries for Strategic Economic Cooperation (ACMECS) and the 4th Summit of Senior Tourism Officers of Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, Vietnam (CLMV) for the 6th time just took place in Siem Reap (Cambodia), according to the Department of International Cooperation (National Administration of Tourism).
The conferences assessed the results of tourism cooperation between countries from 2019 to 2022 and discussed orientations for tourism development in the ACMECS and CLMV regions.
Information at the conference on the results of the implementation of regional cooperation in recent years, the head of the Vietnamese delegation – Mr. Ha Van Sieu – said: Vietnam tourism has been fully opened to international tourism since March 15, recognized by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) as the first Southeast Asian country to completely remove travel barriers related to Covid-19.
In the first 9 months of 2022, Vietnam welcomed more than 1.87 million international arrivals, served 86.8 million domestic tourists, with a total turnover of about 16.5 billion USD. These figures confirm the recovery of tourism in Vietnam, especially when the number of domestic tourists has surpassed the full year 2019 figure before the pandemic in just 9 months. Notably, in the ACMECS sub-region, Vietnam has welcomed more than 110,000 visitors from four CLMT countries.
The ACMECS SOM Conference also exchanged and agreed to report to the ministers on the adoption of the ACMECS Tourism Action Plan for the period from 2023 – 2025, focusing on the following content: Development of tourism products ; exchange of tourist information; tourism human resource development; tourism promotion and marketing; link tourism products and mobilize private sector participation. Vietnam is expected to be tasked with leading and coordinating the development of tourism products.
Meanwhile, the CLMV SOM conference agreed to report to the ministers on the adoption of the CLMV tourism action plan for the period 2023-2025, focusing on the following contents: facilitating travel, increasing tourism capacity; mobilize the participation of the private sector and local communities; actively cooperate to enlist the support of third parties, to develop sustainable and responsible tourism. In the region, Vietnam is expected to lead and coordinate the task of responsible and sustainable development of tourism.
Other issues discussed at the conference included: proposing a common ACMECS tourism logo, creating an exchange platform, updating tourism statistics of ACMECS countries, conducting research on the possibility of creating a to set up a secretariat. Sign ACMECS Tourism.
Earlier, the 11th meeting of tourism ministers (TMM11) of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Bangkok, Thailand and Vietnam was also highly appreciated as an important background. It is the only one of the 21 APEC economies that does not introduce travel restrictions, requires no Covid-19 certification, does not require Covid-19 testing, does not require isolation.
@ Thanhnien
