Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Ngoc Thien said at a meeting in Hanoi on July 13 that poor marketing is one of the reasons for the lackluster growth in tourism. However, arrivals rose 21.3 percent year-on-year to more than 4.7 million in the first half of this year, according to data from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism. In 2011-15 its tourism grew an average of 7 percent a year, compared to 12 percent in Thailand and 10 percent in Singapore. Photo: Dinh Toan/Thanh NienIn a new effort to attract more foreign visitors, Vietnam's tourism authority seeks to increase spending on marketing three-fold to VND120 billion (US$5.24 million) next year. A fund for tourism promotion is set to be established with an initial corpus of at least VND300 billion ($13.11 million), news website Saigon Times Online said Saturday, citing a proposal by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Source: Thanhnien News July 19, 2016 00:56 UTC