Australia is mentioned as one of the key tourism markets that Vietnam will focus on tapping from now to 2020, according to the Vietnam Tourism Development Strategy with a vision towards 2030.

In realising the strategy, promotion days for Vietnam’s hospitality industry were held in Melbourne and Sydney on October 10 and 12, introducing the country’s cultural identities, people and places of interest as well as visa application procedures.

The event looked to bring more Australians to Vietnam in the future as it was attended by not only Australian people, travel agencies and airlines representatives but also the press.

In 2011, 290,000 Australians visited Vietnam, placing their country the 7th in top ten countries with largest number of visitors to Vietnam, according to the Vietnam Administration for Tourism (VNAT).

Besides, this promotion event also worked to further tighten the effective and multi-faceted cooperation between the two countries, said Nguyen Quoc Hung, Deputy Chief of VNAT.

In an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency, Andrew Rohan, a congressman of New South Wales State said that he will call on his people to visit Vietnam.

The promotion programme was jointly organised by VNAT, the Vietnamese Embassy in Australia and the Vietnamese Consul General in Sydney. It is part of the 2012 National Programme on Tourism Promotion.