Member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung and Princess Haifa bint Mohammed Al-Saud, Deputy Minister of Tourism of Saudi Arabia signed a cooperation agreement on tourism.
Immediately after the signing ceremony, the Vietnamese delegation led by Party Central Committee member and Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung had a bilateral working session with Princess Haifa bint Mohammed Al-Saud, Deputy Minister of Tourism of Saudi Arabia.
Attending the event on the Saudi side were Mr. Waleed A. Elkhereiji, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs; Mr. Abdulaziz Al-Duailej, Chairman of the Saudi Arabian Civil Aviation Authority. On the Vietnamese side, there were Ms. Nguyen Phuong Hoa, Director of the Department of International Cooperation (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism); Mr. Dang Ngoc Hoa, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Airlines and Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hung - Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietjet Air.
As one of the largest countries in the Middle East, after launching the Vision 2030 Program in 2016 towards reducing dependence on oil, increasing economic, social and cultural diversity, Saudi Arabia set a goal of attracting more than 100 million tourists by 2030, making tourism the country's second largest source of revenue - second only to oil. In September 2019, Saudi Arabia officially launched tourist visas. Since then, Saudi Arabia's tourism has had very positive developments. In 2022, four years after opening to international tourists, the revenue from Saudi Arabia's tourism industry was 49.3 billion USD. Also in 2022, the number of tourists in Saudi Arabia reached more than 90 million, including both domestic and international visitors.
The signing of the “Action Program in the field of tourism” originated from the initiative of Minister Nguyen Van Hung at the working session with Minister Ahmed A. Al-Khateeb at the end of August in Vietnam. In order to promote tourism cooperation between the two countries in a practical, positive and effective manner commensurate with the available potential and in line with Saudi Arabia's position in the Middle East, the "Action Program in the field of tourism" proposes measures such as enhancing the exchange, sharing of information, experience, statistics on the Halal market, tourist demand, development and training of tourism human resources; organizing joint tourism promotion events; seeking tourism investment opportunities... between the two countries . |
At the meeting, sharing about the development of Vietnam's tourism, Minister Nguyen Van Hung said that Vietnam has a rich tradition and culture with many cultural and historical relics honored by UNESCO, many beautiful landscapes... The Party and State of Vietnam always pay attention to the tourism sector, have built and implemented many important strategies and policies to promote tourism, with the desire to make tourism one of the country's key economic sectors. In February 2023, the Prime Minister of Vietnam issued a Decision approving the Project "Strengthening international cooperation to build and develop Vietnam's Halal industry by 2030". This is the first project to set out major national orientations to open up the potential Halal market, in which tourism is considered one of the priority areas with Saudi Arabia as one of the key partners and markets. Most recently, the Vietnamese Government issued Resolution No. 127/NQ-CP dated August 14, 2023 on the application of electronic visas for citizens of all countries and territories entering Vietnam.
After two years of near-paralysis due to the pandemic, Vietnam's tourism is making strong recovery steps. As one of the first countries in the region to officially "open" after Covid-19, in the first 9 months of 2023, the number of international visitors to Vietnam increased to nearly 9 million. Vietnam has also won many important international tourism awards, and Vietnam's tourism competitiveness indexes are highly ranked by world organizations...
Referring to the implementation of the newly signed Action Program, Minister Nguyen Van Hung emphasized that Vietnam always wishes to strengthen international cooperation to build and develop a Halal tourism value chain suitable to the tastes of tourists from Muslim countries, while promoting Vietnamese tourism in Halal markets such as Saudi Arabia.
"Immediately after the working session with Minister Ahmed A. Al-Khateeb in Vietnam earlier, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism proactively worked with major Vietnamese travel and tourism corporations such as Vingroup, Sungroup, Hanoi Tourist, and Saigon Tourist to research and plan to build tourism products targeting Saudi Arabian tourists," said Minister Nguyen Van Hung.
Minister Nguyen Van Hung held bilateral meetings with Princess Haifa bint Mohammed Al-Saud, Deputy Minister of Tourism of Saudi Arabia.
The Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism also proposed that Saudi Arabia support Vietnam in learning about tourist tastes and the Halal market, building standards and regulations on Halal tourism... through technology transfer, introducing famous Saudi Arabian brands to invest and operate in Vietnam in the fields of accommodation facilities, tourism investment... According to Minister Nguyen Van Hung, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is ready to act as a focal point connecting Saudi Arabian investors and businesses with investment portfolios in the tourism sector in localities of Vietnam; coordinate with relevant agencies to support the organization of survey delegations for Saudi Arabian businesses and investors at a number of famous and potential tourist destinations and scenic spots in Vietnam.
“ Vietnam always wishes to strengthen international cooperation to build and develop a Halal tourism value chain suitable to the tastes of tourists from Muslim countries, while promoting Vietnamese tourism in Halal markets such as Saudi Arabia. Immediately after the previous working session with Minister Ahmed A. Al-Khateeb in Vietnam, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism proactively worked with major Vietnamese travel and tourism corporations such as Vingroup, Sungroup, Hanoi tourist, and Saigon Tourist to research and plan to build tourism products targeting Saudi Arabian tourists. (Minister Nguyen Van Hung) |
Princess Haifa bint Mohammed Al-Saud, Deputy Minister of Tourism of Saudi Arabia, highly appreciated the proposals of Minister Nguyen Van Hung and affirmed that Vietnam and Saudi Arabia share the same aspirations and determination to promote tourism cooperation between the two countries. Currently, Saudi Arabia is considering issuing e-visas for tourists from Vietnam and in the near future, the Ministry of Tourism of Saudi Arabia will work with domestic travel and tourism companies to research and develop product packages suitable to the tastes of Vietnamese tourists. The Princess also said that with the desire to promote tourism exchanges with Vietnam through air routes in the near future, Saudi Arabia hopes to soon establish a direct flight between the two countries.
Minister Nguyen Van Hung presents a gift to Princess Haifa bint Mohammed Al-Saud, Deputy Minister of Tourism of Saudi Arabia
Vietnam and Saudi Arabia signed an air transport agreement in 2019 to facilitate the establishment of air routes between and outside the two countries. According to Mr. Dang Ngoc Hoa, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Airlines, in the near future, Vietnam Airlines and Saudi Arabia will operate code-shared flights, thereby opening a direct route between the two countries. Also sharing at the meeting, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hung - Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietjet Aviation Company said that with a market of more than 34 million people in Saudi Arabia and 100 million people in Vietnam, the potential for tourism and air transport between the two countries is huge, even opening up opportunities to access the ASEAN market and the Asian region.
Saudi Arabia's Deputy Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Al-Duaile emphasized that the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Vietnam is growing in many areas, including investment and tourism. Regarding visas for citizens of the two countries, Saudi Arabia has sent Vietnamese authorities a draft visa exemption agreement for diplomatic and official passport holders. Mr. Abdulaziz Al-Duaile believes that, after being signed, the agreement will create conditions for the two countries to consider the possibility of bilateral visa exemption for tourists from both sides.
DO LAN PHUONG (from Saudi Arabia)
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