However, tourism promotion work has not yet received appropriate investment, said Tuan, who stressed the need to have the involvement of many relevant units.

According to La Quoc Khanh, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, to boost tourism effectively, Vietnam needs to open tourism representative offices overseas, especially in ten key markets.

The VNAT should coordinate with the national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines to provide information on Vietnamese destinations for tourists as well as join foreign travel agencies in holding promotional programmes, he said.

Paul Stoll, a representative from HCMC-based Celadon International Group, affirmed that Vietnam should boost promotion campaigns based on tourism products such as hotels, tours, transport, aviation, entertainment, food, art and historical relics to build and consolidate its trademark.

President of France’s Interface Tourism Gael de la Porte du Thei said that Vietnam should take advantage of the Internet’s existing strengths to improve the effectiveness of promotion work along with studying tourism demands in key markets and increasing the quality of services.

In the first quarter of this year, the VNAT will organise tourism promotion campaigns in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany and Russia in a new and more professional way.