The event was attended by Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung, Vietnamese Ambassador to France Dinh Toan Thang, Director of the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism (VNAT) Nguyen Trung Khanh, and representatives of travel firms in France.

In his opening remarks, Khanh laid stress on the country’s rich endowments of natural resources and culture, which have been capitalised on to boost sustainable tourism development.

He went on to say that an array of Vietnamese destinations and tourism offerings have been highly rated by some of the world’s renowned travel sites and media giants such as the World Travel Awards, TripAdvisor, or Telegraph, CNN and BBC.

Travel between Vietnam and France has been promoted on the back of bilateral cooperative agreements and direct flights that help connect big cities and travel hubs of both sides, he said, adding the Vietnamese tourism sector has organised an array of promotion activities in France with a view to enhancing exchanges of visitors between the two sides.

The Vietnamese Government’s visa-exemption for French visitors since 2015, and recent extension of visa-free stays to 45 days, coupled with easy immigration procedures, attractive tourism products, and locals’ hospitality are ideal conditions to enhance tourism activities, he said.

Expressing their wish to increase the number of French tourists to Vietnam, many French travel firms proposed measures for Vietnam’s tourism to develop in a stronger manner not only in France but also in the other markets.

Guillaume Linton, General Director of Asia Voyage which has run tours to Vietnam over the past 35 years, said inviting journalists, professional tour operators and tourism partners to discover new tours in Vietnam will help them gain a better insight into the country’s cultural identity.

Meanwhile, Anoa Suzanne Dussol, Vietnamese Tourism Ambassador to France, said she wants to branch out business and conference tours so as to bring more French enterprises to northern mountainous areas.

She said the combination of culture, tourism and enterprises will benefit all stakeholders.

In the framework of the forum, delegates witnessed the handover of cooperation minutes between Vietravel’s branch in France and Vietnam Airlines; and the Vietnamese Cultural Centre and the association for Vietnamese culture and tourism promotion in France and Europe.