Draft regulations to allow foreigners to tour through Vietnam in their own vehicles is hoped to open new opportunities for the development of caravan tourism in the country.
Speaking at a press briefing in Hanoi on April 17, Vietnam National Administration of Tourism’s (VNAT) Travel Department Director Vu The Binh said the draft regulations stipulate that all road vehicles owned by foreigners will be allowed to enter Vietnam through international border gates.
Binh
said the new regulation, recently submitted to the Prime Minister for
approval, will this year help raise the number of caravans coming to
Vietnam to 2,000, equal to the total number of caravans entering the
country over the past three years.
Together
with diversifying tourism services, VNAT is focusing on major tourist
programmes such as the Year of Can tho tourism the Hue Festival and
many tourist events nationwide.
The
tourism administration also plans to take part in international tourism
fairs in Japan, Thailand, France, the US, China, Cambodia, and the UK
between September and November.
It
is also urgently preparing for the ASEAN Tourism Forum, and the first
professional tourism fair TRAVEX, to be held in Vietnam for the first
time in early 2009.
According
to VNAT, the number of visitors to Vietnam has been on the rise, with
more than 1.2 million foreigners arriving in the country in the first
quarter of this year, a 15.7 percent rise over the same period last
year.
In
the first quarter of 2008, Vietnam also attracted eight
foreign-invested tourism projects, with a total chartered capital of
1.6 billion USD, nearly the same figure the sector attracted in the
whole last year.
(Source: VNA)
Tag: Vietnam , Tourism , Tour , Vietnam Tour , Travel , Foreigners , Caravan Tourism New regulations open new roads for caravan tourism
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