Travel programme promotes Vietnam’s image to the globe

About 20 foreign guests around the world, including travel bloggers, photographers and book authors, have been invited to explore Vietnamese attractions such as Can Gio – which is renowned as the green oasis in southern Ho Chi Minh City, and Hue imperial city and Lang Co beach in central Thua Thien-Hue province.

Launched by the bilingual English-Vietnamese tourism magazine Wanderlust Tips, the programme is expected to help promote information about Vietnam’s tourism on social media.

Vietnam ranks 63rd among 140 countries and territories in the recently released Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) 2019, jumping four places from the 2017 ranking.

Released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) every two years since 2007, the TTCI 2019 analysed 140 economies and scored each according to their performance on the following six pillars – Air transport infrastructure, ICT readiness, Price competitiveness, International openness, Travel & tourism prioritisation, and Safety and Security.

When it comes to price competitiveness, Vietnam ranks 22nd, rising 13 places while in terms of air transport infrastructure, the country has improved by 11 places, growing to 50th from 61st.

Spain holds the top spot in the ranking, followed by France, Germany and Japan. In Southeast Asia, Singapore was ranked as the most competitive travel and tourism economy while Vietnam was placed 5th.

In 2019, Vietnam's tourism industry aims to welcome 103 million visitors, including 18 million international visitors and 85 million domestic tourists.

According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Administration (VNAT), in the first eight months of this year, the number of foreign visitors to the country rose by 8.7 percent year on year to 11.3 million, with highest growth rate seen in visitors from Asian countries and territories, especially the Republic of Korea, Thailand and Taiwan.

VNA