Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyễn Văn Hùng (front, second from right) talks to visitors to the pavilion of Vietnam at TRAVEX 2024. VNA/VNS Photo

VIENTIANE More than 100 foreign partners have signed cooperation deals and contracts and pledged to bring tourists to Việt Nam within two days at the Travel Exchange (TRAVEX) Trade Fair 2024 in Laos.

TRAVEX 2024, the biggest of its kind held annually in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), took place from January 24-26 with the participation of localities and businesses from ASEAN member countries.

The pavilion of Việt Nam featured the five provinces of Điện Biên, Ninh Bình, Nghệ An, Hà Tĩnh and Quảng Bình and three travel companies who introduced a number of tourism products to regional and international businesses.

Data from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism showed that about 2.1 million of the 12.6 million international visitors to Việt Nam in 2023 came from the ASEAN countries.

Given this, at this year’s event, Việt Nam also looked to popularise its tourism images to attract more travellers from the ASEAN members since with a combined population of 670 million, the bloc is a potential market for travel companies of Vietnam as well as regional countries.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyễn Văn Hùng told the Vietnam News Agency's resident correspondents on January 25 that intra-ASEAN tourism is highly important and holds favourable conditions such as many cultural similarities, beautiful landscapes, and hospitable people. These are advantages for attracting tourists from both the member countries and others across the world. To do that, each nation needs to step up the introduction of its beauty and potential.

He also highly valued the Vietnamese localities and businesses taking part in the fair, which, he said, was a chance to advertise the country’s tourism potential and strengths to international friends to help reach this year’s target of 17 - 18 million international tourist arrivals. VNA/VNS