Ba Ria-Vung Tau (VNA) – The eighth conference on tourism cooperation between Vietnamand Taiwan (China) was held in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau onOctober 18.

Vietnam and Taiwanhave taken turns hosting the annual event since 2012, in a bid to introduce andconnect Vietnamese tourism companies and localities with Taiwanese tourismauthorities and firms.

Taiwan is among Vietnam’sfive leading sources of tourist while Vietnam is also a key market of Taiwan’stourism. More than 1.2 holidaymakers travelled to the other side last year, ayear-on-year surge of 21 percent.

In the first ninemonths of this year, nearly 675,000 Taiwanese came to the Southeast Asiannation, up 28 percent against the same period of 2018.

Vice Chairman of theVietnam National Administration of Tourism Ha Van Sieu stressed that Vietnamhas emerged as a competitive destination in the region as the country’s tourismsector recently received major international tourism awards.

In addition, Taiwan iscurrently Vietnam’s fourth largest foreign investor. Therefore, touristarrivals from the territory to Vietnam and vice versa are projected to rise inthe coming time, he added.

The two sides wereadvised to further step up cooperation to drive the bilateral tourismdevelopment, thus tightening economic, cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

At the event, participantswere updated on new policies of Vietnam. They also shared experience in resorttourism in rural areas, as well as development trends of accommodationestablishments in line with health and beauty care, and agreed on activities in2020./.