Visitors are waiting for cheap tickets and tours at Flamingo Redtours Company's booth last year. VNS Photo Minh Thu

HÀ NỘI — The Việt Nam International Travel Mart (VITM) will take place on August 12-15 in Hà Nội after several dealys due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The annual event will be held by the Việt Nam Tourism Association (VITA) and supported by the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism. It aims to promote brands, tours and products; connect partners and boost domestic, inbound and outbound tours.

With the theme 'Vietnamese Tourism Towards the Future', the eighth edition of the event aims to help solve difficulties after the COVID-19 outbreak and prepare for relaunching inbound and outbound tours. It’s also a chance to encourage enterprises to overcome troubles and develop, according to Vũ Thế Bình, vice chairman of VITA.

“We encourage enterprises to suggest solutions to reduce the pandemic consequences, overcome challenges and revive the position of tourism in economic development,” Bình said yesterday in Hà Nội.

Bình said that the VITM 202 will feature foreign partners even though international airways are still restricted.

“The fair will comprise about 400 booths of airlines, travel agents, resorts and hotels. We will see the participation of cities, provinces and more than 10 countries and territories of which representative offices are located in Việt Nam.” he said.

“Many foreign buyers and exhibitors can't attend the event as planned. However, we still have the support and involvement of embassies and country offices of Colombia, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Philippines, South Korea, UAE, Qatar, Peru, Taiwan and Cuba.”

The opening ceremony will be held on August 12 at the Hà Nội International Centre for Exhibition. The annual VITA Awards, which honour businesses and individuals in the tourism industry, will be held the same day.

The national forum 'Vietnamese Tourism – Changing for Development' will take place on August 13 at the six-star Golden Lake Hotel.

The Việt Nam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) will also host a forum to develop Vietnamese tourism among the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) countries.

Art performances with local and international troupes will perform as part of the event.

The year the organising board initiated the VITM Marathon online to connect the Vietnamese tourism community, improve people’s health and spread information of VITM as well as VITA’s activities.

The competition will be held from July 31 to August 9 on the app Strava and VRun.vn. The system will record their achievement and give prizes at the VITA Awards.

Last year, the VITM saw more than 85,000 visitors, 502 booths and 720 exhibitors from 27 countries and territories. — VNS

A troupe of Taiwanese traditional dance performed at the VITM 2019. This year the event still gets international art troupes and enterprises involved. Photo courtesy of the organiser