At the function, Phong shared Vietnam’s tourism development experience, saying the country’s tourism sector is transitioning from a “recovery” mindset to a “growth” orientation, and from extensive expansion to deeper, quality-driven, competitive and sustainable development.

He noted that 2025 marked a record year for Vietnam’s tourism, with more than 21 million international arrivals, up 20.4% from 2024, adding that product diversification remains one of the country’s key strategies.

“We have integrated ASEAN’s tourism objectives into our international and regional commitments, as well as into Vietnam’s national growth targets. We are firmly committed to upholding ASEAN unity in order to cooperate and develop together,” said Phong.

Drawing from Vietnam’s experience, he proposed a shift from linking individual destinations to building ASEAN into a shared tourism experience ecosystem, where each country contributes a unique piece to a seamless cross-border journey.

“Vietnam also stands ready to work closely with other ASEAN member states to develop a number of emerging and high-potential tourism segments, including railway tourism, golf tourism, wellness tourism and rural tourism, with a view to diversifying products and expanding intra-regional markets,” he stressed.

The ASEAN Tourism Conference was held as part of the 2026 ASEAN Tourism Forum that is getting underway in the Philippines under the theme “Navigating Our Tourism Future, Together”.

The ASEAN Tourism Forum is the largest annual tourism cooperation event in ASEAN, hosted on a rotating basis among member states. ATF 2026 features a series of key activities, including the ASEAN Tourism Ministerial Meeting, ASEAN Tourism Conference, meetings between ASEAN tourism ministers and dialogue partners and partner organisations, meetings of ASEAN national tourism organiszations and their counterparts from partner countries, the TRAVEX international travel mart, the ASEAN Tourism Awards ceremony, joint press briefings by ASEAN tourism ministers, and various side events.

A major highlight of this year’s forum is the finalisation and adoption of the ASEAN Tourism Sectoral Plan 2026–2030, which provides a clear and unified roadmap to promote sustainable and inclusive tourism, enhance visitor experience, empower businesses and strengthen ASEAN’s tourism competitiveness on the global stage.

The roadmap also reflects ASEAN’s broader orientation toward innovation-driven growth, environmentally friendly development and people-centred priorities, underscoring the power of tourism to drive growth when backed by shared vision and innovation.

ASEAN is one of the multilateral tourism cooperation frameworks in which Vietnam participates most actively and effectively. Vietnam has signed bilateral tourism cooperation agreements with all ASEAN member states and is implementing numerous short- and long-term cooperation programmes.

ASEAN is among Vietnam’s most important tourism markets and partners, while ASEAN-based multilateral cooperation continues to play a central role in the country’s international tourism engagement.

Vietnam actively fosters ASEAN’s central role, intra-bloc unity

Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Hoai Trung has attended the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Retreat (AMMR) and related meetings from January 28–29 in Cebu, Philippines, at the invitation of his Filipino counterpart Maria Theresa P. Lazaro.