VNAT’s Chairman Nguyen Trung Khanh attending the celebrations of World Tourism Day 2023 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Photo: VNAT)

The celebration of World Tourism Day 2023 had the presence of Ministers and Leaders of National Tourism Agencies from 125 countries and territories around the world.

The official website of UNWTO reported that, at the opening of the celebrations, His Excellency Minister Ahmed Al Khateeb reaffirmed the Kingdom's commitment to tourism development and strong support of UNWTO's mission. He said: "It is a privilege and honour to host World Tourism Day in Riyadh. Let's celebrate our achievements in coming back strongly from the pandemic. But let's also travel with confidence into the future. A future where large countries and smaller countries can work together to achieve amazing things. And let's all move in harmony towards a new horizon for global tourism."

Minister of Tourism of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ahmed Al Khateeb (Photo: VNAT)

UNWTO Secretary-General Pololikashvili said: "Tourism must lead the way in accelerating our shift to greater resilience and sustainability. For this, we need more investment, as well as the right kind of investment. That is the central message of this year's World Tourism Day, a message that is being amplified from the official hosts of the celebrations, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and echoed around the world by our Members everywhere."

UNWTO Secretary-General Pololikashvili (Photo: VNAT)

Exploring the meaning behind Tourism and Green Investments, the official World Tourism Day celebrations featured a series of expert panels, each focusing on one key priority for the sector right now. These included: Investing in people, through education and jobs; Investing in destinations, including new destinations and products to reduce overcrowding and diversify benefits; investing in innovation and entrepreneurship, and Investing in green transformation.

Overview of the event (Photo: VNAT)

By participating in the celebration of World Tourism Day 2023 with the theme "Tourism and Green Investments", Vietnam's tourism industry affirms to the international community its goals and commitment to develop green and sustainable tourism as stated in national tourism development projects and strategies. In the past 2 years, Vietnam has chosen the themes under green tourism for its Visit Vietnam Year. in which, the Visit Vietnam Year 2022 themed “Quang Nam - Green Tourism Destination” and the Visit Vietnam Year 2023 themed “Binh Thuan - Green tourism comes together”.

As per schedule, Vietnam delegation attended exciting activities at this year's celebration, including the opening ceremony, thematic seminars, and high-level dialogues with the private sector on important current issues of the tourism industry such as: Public-private panel discussion - Investing in People, Investing in Talent: Tourism workforce development and how governments can support the private sector to invest in human resource development; the current state of play of traditional and non-traditional investments related to tourism within the context of sustainable infrastructure development, hospitality sector and the green transformation; how to increase the level of investments to support and incentivize entrepreneurship particularly of young people and women and generate opportunities for innovations in the tourism sector.

Discussion sessions (Photo: VNAT)

Along with that is a public sector session on solutions, policies and investments to ensure a sustainable tourism future, benefiting people and the planet. The session between the public and private sectors discussed seamless travel experiences for tourists, highlighting the importance of digital technology innovation and its impact on transforming the tourism industry and reshaping the entire traveller experience. The question is, looking to the future, how can the tourism industry leverage technology to enhance the visitor experience while still maintaining meaningful connections between people.

On the sidelines of the event, VNAT’s Chairman Nguyen Trung Khanh also had a meeting with PATA President and discussed the possibility of organising a number of major events in Vietnam. VNAT’s Chairman Nguyen Trung Khanh also had a meeting with the Vietnamese Embassy in Saudi Arabia on coordinating to connect businesses of the two countries and providing information and media to introduce Vietnamese tourism to potential new markets.

Tourism Information Technology Center