VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines have agreed to set up a task force charged with promoting the country’s tourism image abroad in the face of falling international arrivals.

Participants will discuss methods to lower hotel room rates and tour prices as well as support from the government for entrepreneurs to do business in the difficult situation.

“We are preparing manpower and waiting for an official move to establish the task force. We (the task force) will propose cooperation activities to the minister and the general director of Vietnam Airlines,” said Nguyen Van Tinh, who will co-chair the tourism-airlines task force.

Tinh, who is also head of International Cooperation Department at the ministry, told the Daily that the two partners would work together in launching promotion programs abroad towards the goal of making Vietnam an attractive destination for foreign travelers. The two partners would seek to integrate their separate programs into a common plan, he said of the recent meeting.

“We (tourism authorities) announced our promotion programs abroad in 2009, while Vietnam Airlines also unveiled its program so as to intertwine the two together. One such joint effort is the promotion program planned for next April in France’s Paris,” he said.

The ministry on Wednesday convened a meeting with relevant ministries, the national flag carrier, provincial tourism departments, and enterprises in Hanoi to discuss solutions to cope with difficulties for the inbound sector.

Tinh said that the meeting would include solutions such as visa exemptions for passengers from key source markets, and improve product quality. Participants will discuss methods to lower hotel room rates and tour prices as well as support from the government for entrepreneurs to do business in the difficult situation.

“I think that the best solution now to woo more foreign visitors under the current situation is to lower prices. It will help attract tourists in the financial crisis,” Tinh said.

The total number of international arrivals in Vietnam in the first 11 months of 2008 was nearly 3.9 million, still far from the year’s target of receiving around 4.8 to 5 million visitors this year.

(Source: SGT)