Viet Nam's tour operators and hoteliers at the International Travel-Trade Show in Berlin (ITB), the biggest fair of its kind in the world last year. The country's tourism will be promoted overseas to attract more foreign visitors this year, according to the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism. — VNA/ VNS Photo Van Long

HCM CITY (Biz Hub) — The Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has unveiled a plan to promote the tourism industry overseas with a target to welcome 8 million foreign visitors this year.

Under the plan, the authority and travel businesses will participate in international tourism exhibitions and promotion programmes in Japan, South Korea, China, Russia, Europe and Southeast Asia.

It will focus on popular tourism fairs that attract a large number of participants such as the international tourism expo in Russia's Moscow, the Top Resa fair in France, the CITM fair in China and the ITB Berlin fair in Germany.

It will also organise trips to Viet Nam for foreign reporters to promote the country's tourism potential as well as tighten the relationship between local and foreign travel firms.

This year, VNAT will try to expand its markets through attending tourism expos in the Middle East and India.

In addition, the tourism industry will promote golf tourism, which targets the South Korean market, a potential market for this tourism segment.

Although the golf tourism is still new and has yet to be developed in Viet Nam, there are more and more tourists from South Korea who are coming to HCM City to play golf, especially at weekends.

Under the plan, VNAT will also organise food festivals to further promote tourism activities.

The country's tourism will continue to be promoted on social networks, smart phones and the internet, according to VNAT.

Viet Nam received more than 7.5 million foreign tourists last year, a rise of 10.6 per cent over the previous year.

Last year, the industry spent some VND20 billion (US$1 million) on the promotion programmes. — VNS