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| Vietnamese Ambassador to Iran Luong Quoc Huy (R) and President of the Association of Air Transport & Tourist Agencies of Iran Hormatallah Rafiei. |
Vietnamese Ambassador to Iran Luong Quoc Huy has visited the Association of Air Transport & Tourist Agencies of Iran (AATTAI) at the invitation of its President Hormatallah Rafiei to discuss tourism cooperation opportunities between the two countries.
At the working session on January 29, Rafiei briefed his guest on the operations of the AATTAI with more than 5,000 members that are Iranian travel firms, as well as Iran’s tourism potential, saying about 9 million Iranian holidaymakers travelling abroad each year.
He also highlighted Iran’s “Look to the East” policy and expressed his hope that the two sides will utilize the respective markets, especially during Iran’s Nowruz, a tradition dating back to at least the 6th century BCE, marking the new year and ushering in spring, which is expected to last up to three weeks.
Rafiei suggested the two sides coordinate to connect Vietnamese and Iranian travel firms, and launch tours in the context when there have been no direct flights between the two countries yet.
He used the occasion to invite the Vietnamese embassy to attend the travel fair to be hosted by the association in the time ahead.
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| At the working session between Vietnamese Ambassador to Iran Luong Quoc Huy and President of the Association of Air Transport & Tourist Agencies of Iran Hormatallah Rafiei. |
For his part, Huy agreed with Rafiei’s suggestions, and introduced Vietnam’s tourism and visa policies to his host.
The diplomat affirmed that tourism is a potential cooperation area between the two countries, pledging to facilitate the connectivity between Vietnamese and Iranian travel enterprises.
Vietnam and Iran set up diplomatic ties on August 4, 1973. Since then, the two countries have continuously enhanced bilateral cooperation in all fields and supported each other at global multilateral forums.
Vietnam’s tourism sector targets to serve about 8 million foreign visitors from the total of 110 million this year, according to the General Administration of Vietnam Tourism.
The country expects to earn about VND650 trillion VND ($27.5 billion) from tourism.
The General Statistics Office (GSO) reported that 707,000 foreign visitors arrived in Vietnam in December 2022, an increase of 18.5% compared to that of the previous month.
The country welcomed more than 3.36 million foreign visitors in 2022, 23.3 times higher than in 2021 but down by 79.9% compared to the 2019 pre-pandemic level./.
