Vietnam attends ASEAN tourism conference
Ha Noi, Jan. 17 (VNA) -- A Viet Nam Tourism Administration (VTA) delegation led by VTA Deputy Director General Pham Tu attended the fourth conference of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) tourism officials held in Brunei from Jan. 9-16.
Participants appraised the achievements by ASEAN countries in the past year when ASEAN welcomed 37,534 million international visitors, 9.5 percent more than 1999.
Viet Nam achieved the highest increase -20 percent- or 2.13 million international tourists.
They approved cooperation projects to accelerate regional tourism activities under the Ha Noi Plan of Action and to encourage investment in ASEAN's tourism industry and the development of sustainable tourism and human resource development.
The Viet Nam delegation's initiative to boost tourism cooperation between ASEAN+3 -China, the Republic of Korea and Japan- in the spirit of the ASEAN+3 conference in Singapore in November 2000 was also discussed.
The conference welcomed the initiative as an active contribution to strengthening tourism cooperation within the association and countries of other regions.--VNA
