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Sep 10, 2016 / 10:14

ITE HCMC 2016 to provide attractive tourism products

The 12th International Travel Expo HCM City (ITE HCMC), entitled “The Gateway to Asia”, kicked off in the southern city in the night of September 7.

Numerous activities will be organised during the International Travel Expo 2016 (ITE), take place at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre in HCM City from September 8-10. 
International Tourism Fair in HCM City held annually in September is a typical event of Vietnam's tourism.

 
Illustrative image
Illustrative image
The event has been one of the most established and fast-growing International Travel Expos in the region. 
The event aims to promote the image of the Vietnamese country and people, contributing to attract more tourists to Vietnam.
The three-day event has 280 booths set up by 32 international tourism agencies, 38 local firms and 31 cities and provinces across the country.
There are airlines, hotels and resorts, and tour companies from 22 countries, including Cambodia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the EAE.

 
At the opening ceremony.
At the opening ceremony.
Other prominent attendees at the expo include Tourist Ministers from the member nations of the "Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) a nd ASEAN, officials from cities in the lower Mekong basin and other localities. 
Forums and workshops will also be held to boost cooperation among regional countries. 
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Ngoc Thien said that the annual event aims to promote the images of Vietnam’s land and people as well as boost culture and tourism cooperation between Vietnam and foreign countries, especially those in Southeast Asia.
He stressed that the tourism industry has been considered to be an important and spearheaded economic sector in many countries worldwide.
According to Minister Nguyen Ngoc Thien, in the 2011-2015 period, Vietnam's growth of international tourists has reached approximately 7.4% year-on-year, meanwhile the rate of domestic visitors has been 18.5% yearly. In 2015, Vietnam welcomed 7.92 million international tourists and served 57 million domestic visitors.
In the first 8 months of this year, the number of international visitors to Vietnam reached nearly 6.5 million arrivals, up 25.4%  against the same period last year.
Every year, ITE HCMC brings together international and regional buyers to meet exhibitors for outbound and inbound businesses, Jack Wei, said general manager of Informa Exhibitions, the co-organiser of ITE HCMC.
It is expected to lure over 30,000 visitors, up about 20-30 percent from the 2015 version.
At the event, the organising board granted the Mekong Tourism Alliance Awards 2016 to travel businesses which have made outstanding contributions to the development of tourism trademarks of the five Greater Mekong Sub-region countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam).
ACMECS is an economic cooperation framework includes 5 countries of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar.