VNAT’s Vice Chairman Ha Van Sieu welcoming the Gumi City working delegation, Korea. Photo: TITC

VNAT’s Vice Chairman Ha Van Sieu highly appreciates Gumi City as well as other Korean localities for actively and proactively participating in the Vietnam International Travel Mart - VITM Hanoi 2024 to introduce, enhance exchanges, cooperation, and promote tourism between Vietnam and Korea. Vietnam and Korea are two very close countries and have a large number of tourists travelling back and forth to each other every year, both ranking among each other's top source markets.

In 2023, Vietnam welcomed about 12.6 million international visitor arrivals, including 3.6 million Korean visitor arrivals. In the first 3 months of 2024, Vietnam welcomed 4.6 million international visitor arrivals, including 1.2 million arrivals from Korea and there were 120,000 Vietnamese arrivals visiting and travelling to Korea during this period. VNAT’s Vice Chairman Ha Van Sieu hopes that in 2024, the number of tourists from both sides will exceed the level before the Covid-19 pandemic. It is expected that there will be nearly 5 million Korean visitor arrivals to Vietnam and more than 1 million Vietnamese visitor arrivals to Korea this year.

Mr. Kim Yeong Cheol - Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Gumi City, Korea. Photo: TITC

Mr. Kim Yeong Cheol - Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Gumi City, Korea said, this is the first time the city participates in the Vietnam International Travel Mart - VITM Hanoi, expected to contribute to promoting the number of Vietnamese tourists coming to Korea in general and to Gumi City in particular.

Gumi is known as Korea's industrial city, famous for its large manufacturing factories, including the Nongshim factory that produces the largest Shin noodles in the country, large factories of Samsung and LG Electronic. This place is also famous as a tourist city with beautiful natural landscapes, many mountains and parks, and many places associated with Buddhism.

Overview of the meeting. Photo: TITC

There are about 1,600 Vietnamese citizens currently living and working in Gumi City. Every year, the city government organises cultural festivals for Korean and Vietnamese people to increase exchanges, connections, and introduce their countries' cultures. One of the special and unique festivals of Gumi City is the Ramen Noodle Festival, attracting a large number of domestic and international tourists to visit and enjoy bowls of fresh noodles produced on the same day. The city hopes to expand the scale of organising this festival in Vietnam and other countries around the world in the near future.

Besides, according to Mr. Kim Yeong Cheol, Vietnam has a long coastline, possessing beautiful resorts with high-class services suitable to the demands of tourists. In particular, Koreans love to come to Vietnam to play golf, especially in winter.

Mr. Kim Yeong Cheol hopes that through VITM Hanoi 2024, Gumi City can attract and welcome more Vietnamese tourists to Korea. At the same time, he hopes that VNAT will support orienting and building tourism promotion programmes suitable for a diverse groups of Vietnamese and Korean tourists.

VNAT’s Vice Chairman Ha Van Sieu affirmed that with the attractiveness of Gumi City, there will be many Vietnamese tourists interested in and visiting the city. At the same time, he recommended to consider organising the 2024 Vietnam Cultural Tourism Festival in Seoul and Gumi to promote communication, connection, and cultural exchange between the people of the two countries. VNAT will accompany and support Gumi City in tourism promotion activities between Vietnam and Korea in general, and Gumi City in particular.

Tourism Information Technology Center