The Vietnam
National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) said it will attend seven
international tourism fairs in 2011, instead of 10 in 2010. Also, the tourism
management agency plans to more closely cooperate with airlines to make tourism
promotion programs at trade fairs more effective.

VNAT”s
General Director, Nguyen Van Tuan has said on Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon that VNAT
will only participate in some most important trade fairs which can help much in
popularizing Vietnam’s
tourism and provide big exchange opportunities to travel firms. Tuan said that
the decision has been made in order to cut down expenses in the current
difficult period.

“Though we
will attend less trade fairs, we will better organize booths at the trade fairs
and will fairly arrange the premises for travel firms. Those, who contribute
more funds, will get more advantageous premises,” he said.

Previously,
domestic travel firms always joined forces with VNAT to organize national
booths at trade fairs. However, recently, some firms have decided to spend
money to lease booths, design the booths and popularize their images
themselves.

“The VNAT’s
booths were always too small, therefore, travel firms did not have much room at
the booths,” Director of a travel firm explained why he has decided to set up a
booth of its own. “Meanwhile, we need big booths, where our staff can discuss
with foreign partners. We also need the room to display publications and need
the space designed in a way to show our specific characteristics”.

The
representative of another travel firm said that his firm does not attend every
trade fair together with VNAT, because every travel firm has its specific key
targeted markets. However, he stressed that VNAT needs to change the way of
attending trade fairs, especially in the booth arrangement and the working
method.

“At many
trade fairs, foreign reporters could not find the representatives of Vietnam’s
tourism at the booths,” a director of a travel firm said.

VNAT has
sent a dispatch to local departments of culture, sports and tourism, inviting
travel firms to register to join the national tourism booth of VNAT at JATA, an
international tourism trade fair in Japan,
ITB Asia in Singapore and
CITM in China
to be held in September and October. The registrations of travel firms would
serve as the important information for VNAT to carry out the national tourism
promotion program in 2011.

Saigon Tiep
thi has quoted Deputy Director of the HCM City Department for Culture, Sports
and Tourism, La Quoc Khanh as saying that the department will not join the
booths until it knows for sure that the organization by VNAT becomes better.

Meanwhile,
Pham Ha, Managing Director of Sang Trong Vietnam (Vietnam’s luxury), has
affirmed that the firm will lease a booth at ITB Asia 2011 trade fair itself in
order to get better business efficiency.

“It will
cost us 3000 dollars to lease a 9 square meter booth, but we will be able to
polish our image in the eyes of foreign partners,” Director of Net Dep Dong
Duong (Indochina’s beauty) Vu Hoang Anh said.

He added
that travel firms in general do not want to “sit in a common cramped house of Vietnam’s
tourism”.

When
reporters asked if VNAT has made some changes with the way of organizing VNAT’s
booths at trade fairs, after some travel firms have refused to join the booths
at the trade fairs in Singapore, Japan and China due to the bad organization,
Tuan said that a lot of travel firms have registered to join the three trade
fairs and he has not received any reports about this from subordinates.

Tuan said
that VNAT always listens to opinions from travel firms with all ears, so that
it can improve the tourism promotion work.

C. V