Doha, 08 March 2022

By Ashraf Siddiqui

TWO-WAY tourism between Qatar and Vietnam provides a strong economic and political dimension to the ties between the two countries, Vietnam’s Ambassador to Qatar Tran Duc Hung has said.

Addressing the ‘Welcome back to Viet￾nam’ roadshow here on Sunday, he said Vietnam, a land of rich natural wonders and cultures, is emerging as an attractive destination for tourists from Gulf coun￾tries.

Speaking about the event itself, hesaid its aim was to further boost tourism exchanges between Vietnam on the one hand, and Qatar and other GCC countries on the other.

The roadshow was organised by the embassy of Vietnam in Qatar in collabo￾ration with Hanoi based HG Holdings Group, a leading travel company.

Those present at the event were Ngo Minh Duc, chairman of board of HG Holdings Group; Subhash, acting general manager of ASIA DMC, a subsidiary of HG Holdings group; leaders and manag￾ers of travel companies across Qatar in￾cluding Regency Travel; Tawfeeq Travel;
First Class Travel; NBK Travel & Tourism;
Arabian Link Travel; Mosafer Travel; and
representatives from Qatar Airways.

Describing his country as a success￾ful development story, he said that economic reforms since 1986, combined with favourable global trends, have rapidly helped Vietnam to grow. From one of the poorest countries in the world, it is now ranked 5th in Southeast Asia and 41st globally with a population of 98 million people as per 2021 figures.

In tandem with its economy, Viet￾nam’s tourism industry has shown an ex￾ponential growth, he said. “Today Vietnam enjoys the position of
a vibrant and connected hub in Southeast
Asia.

In 2019, before COVID-19, the country welcomed 18 million international
tourists while serving 85 million domestic tourists, an increase of 16 percent and
6 percent respectively over the year 2018.

With a revenue of $32.8 billion, tourism represents nearly 9.2 percent of the GDP of Vietnam,” he said.  “This is truly a success story for Vietnam tourism,” he added.

He further said that the world has faced two very difficult years. Internation￾al exchanges and collaboration have been challenged and limited due to travel re￾strictions and prevention measures taken in the fight against COVID-19.  The world economy, especially tourism industry has suffered great loses.

However, thanks to a solid foundation, Vietnam’s economy has shown remarkable resilience and recorded a positive GDP growth in 2020.

“In 2022, the challenge is not only to facilitate and foster the rebound of inter￾national travel; but also to keep building solid foundations for the long-term devel￾opment and success of our travel indus￾try,” he said.

“I am confident to find in you the trustful and strong partners that Vietnam needs to meet an ambitious development strategy. And I believe that Vietnam will keep listening to the needs and exigencies of its international partners with the only goal in mind being to achieve excellence,” he added.

In his closing remarks, ambassador Hung expressed his belief that Vietnam and Qatar would work closely, promote bilateral tourism cooperation and together capture all the post-pandemic opportunities that lie before them.

Two short documentaries were shown on Viet Nam tourist attraction sites on the occasion.

Ngo Minh Duc, chairman of Board of HG Holdings Group, a leading Hanoi based tour operators and Subhash, Acting General Manager of ASIA DMC, gave detailed  presentation on historical sites, local cuisine, culture and about the Vietnamese people.

Viet Nam envoy hosted the guests with the Viet Nam's delicious cuisines followed by famous Vietnam's coffee.