Top Vietnamese tourism firms honoured

The event, which celebrated the 58th founding anniversary of the Vietnamese tourism sector, was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam and representatives from various ministries, sectors, the Vietnam Travel Association and many travel firms.

Addressing the ceremony, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Ngoc Thien said that over the past 58 years, tourism activities have grown, attracting an increasing number of foreign tourists.

In the recent three years, the number of international visitors has grown 30 percent, reaching nearly 13 million in 2017 from 8 million in 2015. Its revenue in the year exceeded 510 trillion VND (21.93 billion USD), accounting for nearly 8 percent of the country’s GDP, he noted.

In 2018, the sector aims to serve 16 million foreign and 82 million domestic tourists, said the minister, adding that Vietnam had the world’s sixth fastest growing tourism sector and Asia’s fastest last year.

The minister highlighted the contributions by the business community to making Vietnam an attractive and competitive tourist destination.

This year, the Vietnam Tourism Awards were presented to 10 leading travel firms, 15 top five-star hotels, 15 top four-star hotels, 15 passenger automobile carriers, 10 top restaurants for tourists, 10 shops, five tourism areas, 10 leading golf courses and five top tourism investors.

At the ceremony, the organizing board also announced 12 winners of a writing contest on Vietnamese tourism, which was launched from October 2017.

“I Love Vietnam” - a special prize for foreigners with best writing work on Vietnamese tourism – was presented to Lana O’Sullivan from the US.