Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung (right) exchanging Memorandum of cooperation with Kazakhstan's Minister of Culture and Sports Askhat Oralov (Photo: MOCST)

On 21st August 2023, in the framework of the official visit to Vietnam by the President of Kazakhstan, President of Vietnam Vo Van Thuong and President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev witnessed the signing of more than 10 cooperation agreements between the two sides. In which, Vietnam's Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung signed a Memorandum of Understanding on tourism cooperation with Kazakhstan's Minister of Culture and Sports Askhat Oralov.

Tourism is an area with great potential for cooperation between Vietnam and Kazakhstan. On average, the number of tourists from Kazakhstan to Vietnam reaches about 10,000 arrivals per year and tends to gradually increase, especially since there are direct flights between the two countries.

Vietnam and Kazakhstan signed a Memorandum of Understanding on tourism cooperation under the witness of Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev (Photo: MOCST)

Within the framework of the visit to Vietnam by the President of Kazakhstan, the Government of Vietnam and the Government of Kazakhstan signed an Agreement on visa exemption for ordinary passport holders. Accordingly, citizens of Vietnam and Kazakhstan are exempt from visas to enter, exit, transit, and temporarily stay in the territories of the two countries for a period of not more than 30 days (previously, Kazakhstan unilaterally exempted visas for Vietnamese tourists from September 2019). This opens up opportunities to promote tourism cooperation between the two countries.

According to the Memorandum of Understanding, in the coming time, Vietnam and Kazakhstan will give priority to strengthening tourism cooperation through exchanging experiences on classification and quality management of accommodation establishments; share information about planning to organise tourism events in each country, encourage participation in related events, invite each other to attend international fairs, seminars and international events related to tourism.

At the same time, exchange introductory materials to promote tourism potential of each country; facilitate the exchange of delegations, connect tourism businesses, support the organisation of tourism promotion; enhance culinary exchange and promotion activities; cooperation in green tourism development, digital transformation and information technology application in tourism development; training cooperation in the field of tourism.

Tourism Information Technology Center