Meeting with Vice President and General Secretary of Viet Nam Society of Travel Agents (VISTA)

Ambassador – Designate Prof. A. Saj U. Mendis and Minister Counsellor (Commercial) Ms. Kishani Wickramasinghe met with Ms. Bien Vu Giang, Vice President & General Secretary of Viet Nam Society of Travel Agents (VISTA), and Ms. Huong of Pat Tours company at the Office of the Ambassador of Sri Lanka in Ha Noi on 9 February 2023. The VISTA is a largest Travel Agents Association in Ha Noi and amongst the largest in Viet Nam. The discussion focused primary on measures to enhance and aggrandize tourism from Viet Nam to Sri Lanka. Viet Nam, a nation with a population of over 100 million and one of the fastest growing economies in the entire world with a rapidly rising middle class, had over 10 million Vietnamese travelling out of the country before the COVID pandemic. Most of them travelled to countries such as China, Japan, Republic of Korea, Thailands, and Southeast Asian countries as well as to the Europe and Americas. The Mission arranged and facilitated the visits of 28 Vietnamese tourists to travel to Sri Lanka on 12 February and another 20 Vietnamese tourists on 26 February 2023. Prof. Mendis stated that with easy air connectivity between Viet Nam and Sri Lanka, if Sri Lanka captures only 0.5% of the Vietnamese tourists, it would translate to over 50,000 Vietnamese tourists to Sri Lanka. He further added that before the COVID pandemic, tourism contributed nearly 5.5% to the economy and the GDP as well as employment to well over 350,000 Sri Lankans in Sri Lanka, thus ennunciating the seminal and vital nature of tourism to Sri Lanka.