A ceremony will be organised on July 8 in Hanoi to present the “Vietnam Tourism Award 2017” to businesses with the best performances in 2016.

Scene at the Vietnam Tourism Award 2016

The most prestigious annual award of the sector, first held in 1999, is set to take stage right after a meeting in celebration of Vietnam Tourism Day (July 9).

The schedule was announced at a press conference by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) in Hanoi on July 4, which gave information on the sector’s performance in 2017’s first half and future plans.

According to VNAT office chief Vu Quoc Tri, the number of foreign tourists to Vietnam in the first six months of 2017 was higher than in the same period last year, with China and the Republic of Korea contributing the highest number of visitors to the country.

The domestic market recorded the most significant growth on the April 40-May 1 holiday and in early summer, he added.

Vietnam was ranked 67th among 136 economies in the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s recently released Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) 2017, going up eight places compared to the ranking in 2015.

Ho Chi Minh City’s Tourism Department took the occasion to introduce the 13th International Travel Expo HCM City, an annual international tourism fair among five Mekong basin countries – Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

It is scheduled to run from July 7 to 9 and is expected to see the number of international participants increase by 20 percent compared to last year. 

VNA