Published:  15:47 Thursday - April 25, 2013

A Taiwanese business group visited in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi Wednesday to take part in an international travel fair and boost Taiwan's tourist attractions.

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The 23-member delegation, consisting of representatives of tour agencies, hotels, leisure farms and specialty stores, and led by Wu Tsung-lin, director of the Kuala Lumpur office of Taiwan's Tourism Bureau, will take part in the 2013 Hanoi International Travel Exhibition and Trade Fair slated for April 18-19.

The delegation is hoping to attract Vietnamese consumers with popular Taiwanese electronic products, food and natural scenery, a spokesman for the group said.

Taiwan and Vietnam signed a memorandum of understanding last May to forge cooperation in the promotion of tourism exchanges.
Last November, the two countries held a bilateral conference in Taipei on tourism cooperation -- the first of its kind -- in which representatives of the two sides exchanged views on issues concerning investment, personnel training and special tour packages, according to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Hanoi.

Statistics from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism show that in 2012, Taiwanese citizens made 409,385 visits to Vietnam, representing a 13.39 percent growth from the previous year and making Taiwan Vietnam's fifth-largest source of tourists.
Meanwhile, over 90,000 Vietnamese people traveled to Taiwan last year for sightseeing, up 40 percent from the previous year, the statistics indicate.

The two countries have also decided to hold a second Taiwan-Vietnam Tourism Cooperation Conference in Vietnam in the fourth quarter of this year.

Exchanges between Taiwan and Vietnam have become more and more frequent over the past two decades. Currently, there are 100,000 Vietnamese people working in Taiwan, 100,000 Vietnamese spouses of Taiwanese people living there, and nearly 5,000 Vietnamese students studying there, the TECO said. Vietnam, meanwhile, is host to 40,000 businesses from Taiwan, the office added. 

Source: Focustaiwan