Hanoi tourism sector earns top honors at 2025 Korea Tourism Awards
International recognition at the Korea Tourism Awards has highlighted Hanoi’s growing influence in regional travel markets and reinforced strong tourism ties between Vietnam and South Korea.
THE HANOI TIMES — The Hanoi Department of Tourism and some Hanoi tourism businesses received prestigious awards from the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) at the 2025 Korea Tourism Awards, reinforcing Hanoi’s position as a leading international travel destination.
KTO honors important partners who have great devotion in promoting tourism between two countries. Photo: Ngo Minh/The Hanoi Times
KTO presented the Strategic Partner Award to Hanoitourist, while the Outstanding Partner Award went to Vietravel Hanoi and Vietrantour.
Flamingo Redtours and Hanoi Skytours received the Innovative Partner Awards, while SGO DMC earned the Promising Partner Award.
The Hanoi Department of Tourism, the Vietnam National Tourism Administration and several tourism management agencies and enterprises were also honored for their contributions to strengthening tourism cooperation between Vietnam and South Korea.
Speaking at the ceremony on December 27, Park Eun Jung, Chief Representative of KTO in Vietnam, said 2025 marked a milestone year for bilateral tourism exchange.
She noted that Party General Secretary To Lam’s August visit to South Korea as the first state guest of the country’s new government opened a new chapter in bilateral relations.
During the visit and in the presence of Party General Secretary To Lam, KTO signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding with Vietnamese tourism partners, Park said.
“This represents a decisive step in strengthening tourism cooperation between South Korea and Vietnam,” she said. “It confirms tourism as a key pillar of cooperation built on mutual trust between the two governments.”
Tourism exchanges recorded strong recovery and structural improvement in 2025. By the end of November, South Korea welcomed more than 508,000 Vietnamese visitors, an increase of 6.9% from the same period last year.
In the MICE segment, covering meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions, KTO Vietnam retained a leading position among KTO’s 32 overseas offices in supporting incentive travel to South Korea.
In 2025, KTO Vietnam assisted 345 enterprises in organizing MICE programs, bringing more than 41,100 MICE travelers to South Korea, a year-on-year increase of 12.7%.
According to the head of KTO’s representative office in Vietnam, these figures reflect a qualitative leap in bilateral tourism cooperation, shifting from recovery to sustained growth.
Nguyen Thi Hoa Mai, Deputy Director General of the Vietnam National Tourism Administration, said Vietnam-South Korea relations have strengthened steadily for more than three decades and now stand as a comprehensive strategic partnership.
She emphasized that tourism has played a pioneering role in connecting cultures, people and shared experiences between the two countries.
As the state authority for tourism, the administration will continue to deepen cooperation with Korean partners to develop market-oriented tourism products, Mai said.
The agency will focus on targeted promotion, digital transformation in tourism and improved conditions for people-to-people exchanges and business collaboration.
In 2025, KTO in Vietnam intensified efforts to diversify tourism content built around the K-Culture platform, while expanding offerings for niche markets and independent travelers.
These products include sports tourism, educational travel, medical tourism, local experiences and in-depth exploration of emerging destinations, responding to the evolving preferences of Vietnamese travelers.
