HÀ NỘI – During its four days (April 13-16), the Vietnam International Travel Mart (VITM) 2023 attracted over 3,000 exchanges among Vietnamese and foreign enterprises, 10,000 tours and tourism products were sold and some 60,000 visitors flocked to the site.

The 12th edition of the annual VITM gathered 452 stalls by over 600 enterprises from 15 countries and territories and 51 domestic cities and provinces.

VITM 2023 hosted 20 tourism promotions, workshops and conferences.

Based on a survey by the organisers, 25 per cent of enterprises said they were very satisfied with the event, 72.5 per cent satisfied and 0.3 per cent were not satisfied.

People enjoy taking photos at Taiwan's booth at VITM 2023. VNS Photo Lê Hương

About 9 per cent of enterprises said VITM surpassed their expected level and 88 per cent said it met their expectations.

Some 91 per cent of enterprises and organisations said they would join VITM 2024.

The Korean Tourism Organisation hosted various entertaining games for visitors such as an online game, giving away gifts and teddy bears; traditional dishes; a quiz on Korean tourism, culture, and films to win gifts; handmade crafts; and wearing Hanbok to take photos at instant photo booths.

Visitors buying tours to South Korea from eight companies including Vietravel, Hanoi Tourism, Saigon Tourist, Flamingo Redtours, Vietnam Tourism, Vietluxtour, Postum Travel, and Hanotours were presented with special gifts.

Besides KTO, five tourism promotion agencies from Jeju, Busan, Gyeongbuk, and Gangneung also joined the event.

Lotte Group also promoted landmarks such as Lotte World Tower and Lotte World recreational park.

A workshop highlighting Việt Nam’s cultural tourism attracted over 200 enterprises participating directly and thousands of other enterprises joining online. Speakers proposed solutions to boost cultural tourism, and turn tourism into a spearhead in developing the culture industry.

The workshop “Reducing Plastic Waste in Tourism” attracted dozens of agencies, and enterprises in the country as the Việt Nam Tourism Association with the support of the UNDP implemented a project to reduce plastic waste in tourism in Việt Nam.

The South Korea corner always attracted the youth. VNS Photo Lê Hương

The project aims to build models of reducing plastic waste among domestic enterprises, and enhance people’s and tourists’ awareness of cutting down plastic waste in tourism activities.

The project also aims to change consumers’ habits and step by step remove single-use plastic products.

There were various introduction workshops for localities in the country such as Kiên Giang, Thái Nguyên, Ninh Bình, Thanh Hóa, Nghệ An, Hà Tĩnh, Hà Nội, Sa Pa, Lạng Sơn and other countries and territories including Indonesia, and Taiwan (China). VNS