The Indian Consulate General in HCM City held a seminar on Wednesday to introduce the culture, tourism, cuisine and beautiful nature of India.

The event, which drew representatives from the municipal Tourism Department, nearly 50 Vietnamese travel companies and those from India, was also a chance to promote tourism ties between the two countries.

Addressing the seminar, Indian Consul General K. Srikar Reddy noted the Viet Nam-India connections in history and civilisation, saying visits by the two countries’ high-ranking leaders have focused on tourism collaboration and people-to-people exchange.

He noted that Viet Nam and India are yet to fully tap their tourism potential although the number of tourists travelling between the two countries has significantly increased in recent years.

According to Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa, deputy director of the HCM City Tourism Department, India is the city’s 11th biggest tourist markets. By the end of 2018, Indian tourists to HCM City numbered about 103,000, up 80.9 per cent against the previous year and accounting for half of total Indian arrivals to Viet Nam.

The municipal tourism sector considers India a key tourist market, she said, adding that it plans to step up exchanges and co-operation as well as design tour programmes through farm trip and press trip activities to increase tourist arrivals between the two nations.

At the seminar, Vietnamese and Indian travel companies shared experience in designing tours and promoting new services and destinations. —  VNS