Vietnam, Sri Lanka seek to cooperate in tourism

Vietnam’s leading travel agencies, including Hanoi Toserco, Saigontourist and Fiditour, met with over 150 Sri Lankan partners in Colombo city on June 8 in their efforts to promote Vietnamese tourism. 

The event was coorganised by the Vietnamese Embassy in Sri Lanka and the Travel Agents Association of Sri Lanka (AITA). 

Speaking at the event, AITA Vice President U. Silva said Sri Lankan tourists are showing more interest in Vietnam . He called on local travel agencies and media companies to exploit the market that he described as the one with potential for development. 

Vietnamese Ambassador to Sri Lanka Ton Sinh Thanh said the first-ever event aims to help Sri Lankan travel agents gain a better understanding about people, land, history, culture, landscape and cuisine of Vietnam. 

While appraising Sri Lankan travel agencies’ active involvement in the event, Thanh said this is a good chance for Vietnam to promote its tourism industry and explore Sri Lanka ’s tourism market. 

The ambassador expressed his hope that the meeting along with a ten-day Fam Trip for 15 Sri Lankan tourism and media representatives launched by the Vietnamese Embassy in August will further promote tourism cooperation between the two countries. 

At the meeting, the Vietnamese embassy and travel agencies delivered documents, pictures, and souvenirs capturing the country’s tourism and culture.

Seminar on preserving cultural heritages

The role museums play in protecting cultural heritages in the Mekong and Ganga River valleys and the impacts of climate change were debated at an international science seminar in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue on June 11-12. 

The event was co-organised by the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology and the Vietnam Institute of Literature and Arts Studies with nearly 50 scientists from Vietnam , Bangladesh , Nepal , India, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and China taking part. 

The delegates focused their discussions on climate change’s impacts on cultural heritages. 

Apart from the three main topics of climate change and cultural heritages; climate change and museums and related research, the delegates also talked about setting up a network of museums and cultural agencies in the two river valleys to facilitate research and hold exhibitions. 

The delegates also made a field trip to the lagoon at Tam Giang-Cau Hai and the are at the Thuan An river mouth to evaluate the impacts of climate change on the local environment, people and cultural heritages there.