Vientiane (VNA) – Director of the VietnamNational Authority of Tourism (VNAT) Nguyen Trung Khanh put forth some measuresto boost regional tourism cooperation while addressing the 59thMeeting of the ASEAN National Tourism Organisations in Vientiane, Laos, on January 23.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) needs to pay more attention to joint activities inthree partner countries, namely China, Japan and the Republic of Korea, and take advantage of the strengths of partners and dialogues to promote ASEANtourism, he said, elaborating that after COVID-19 pandemic tourists tend totravel shorter distances.

It is essential for the bloc to seek out tourism standardsin the coming years, taking into account emerging regional trends such as golftourism, the head of the Vietnamese delegation said, adding that this is anattractive product and also a strength of ASEAN member countries.

He held that more efforts should be paid to developing anddiversifying tourism products, with the participation of the member countries, inwhich ASEAN can jointly organise a joint regional festival.

Khanh told the meeting that Vietnam welcomedabout 12.6 million foreign tourists last year, including about 2.1 millionvisitors from the ASEAN countries. He also expressed optimism about the brightprospects in 2024, saying that the tourism markets of all ASEAN countries willfully recover.

Entitled “Quality and responsible tourism - Sustaining ASEANfuture”, the meeting focused on discussing and updating the implementation ofthe ASEAN Tourism Strategic Plan 2016-2025, and decisions relating to tourism atthe 42nd and 43rd ASEAN Summits.

The reports of the ASEAN Tourism Committee andother issues relating to partners and dialogues as wellas preparation of agenda and joint statement of the 27th Meeting of ASEANTourism Ministers and Related Meetings were also touched upon./.