The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) will organize road shows in France and Taiwan this month to woo more tourists to the country, according to Vu The Binh, Director of the Department of Travel under VNAT.

He said that VNAT would cooperate with the Vietnamese Embassy and the Vietnamese Society in France to organize a road show in Paris.

Local tourism officials and entrepreneurs will join the event there from December 12 to 19, where they will seek to promote Vietnam tourism as well as tighten relationships with French travel firms, Binh said.

The program in Paris is aimed to introduce to potential French travelers Vietnamese food, culture, and tourism. Meetings between local and French tourism entrepreneurs will take place during the week.

“We will meet with around 300 French travel firms during the program,” Binh said.

Meanwhile, three similar road shows will take place in Taiwan from December 10 to 18 in the three cities of Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung. Local participants will meet with around 200 travel companies in each locality.

Binh said that France and Taiwan are among the top source markets for Vietnam’s inbound sector. These markets are recovering after months of a decline due to the economic downturn.

“The tourism authority needs to carry out such activities to help prop up recovery in Vietnam’s tourism sector,” he said. Binh said these road shows will be the final promotion activities abroad for this year.

According to a report of the General Statistics Office, around 160,000 French people have visited Vietnam in this year to date, down 3.7% year-on-year, while the number of Taiwanese amounted to some 247,000, down 12.4% year-on-year.

In April, the VNAT and Vietnam Airlines have joined hands to organize a festival to promote Vietnam’s sea tourism in France. Vietnam early this year has also opened the Vietnam Culture Center in France to carry out activities to promote the country’s images as well as trade and investment.

According to VNAT, the country’s tourism this year has spent around VND50 billion for promotional activities at home and abroad, with special focus on such markets as China, Northeast Asia, ASEAN, Western Europe, Northern Europe, and North America.