GDT Vice Chairman Nguyen Manh Cuong said the workshop, which was jointly held by the General Department of Tourism (GDT), the Vietnamese Embassy in France and Vietnam Airlines, aims to promote Vietnam’s natural beauty and its people to the French in order to attract more tourists from the country.

Mr. Cuong also added that Vietnam and France have considerable potential in economic, commercial and tourist cooperation. France is among the ten countries with the most visitors to Vietnam. However, the number of French tourists has dropped in recent years due to the economic crisis, disasters, and diseases.

To help the tourism industry recover, Vietnam has launched a campaign entitled “Impression Vietnam” in which administrative procedures will be reformed to create incentives for tourists and overseas Vietnamese to visit the country. Also, Vietnam will create more high-quality tourism products, improve the infrastructure, help travel agencies seek more customers and expand domestic and overseas markets.

The two countries signed an agreement on tourism cooperation in 1996, a protocol in 2005 and a memorandum for the implementation of the protocol in September 2009.

Under the agreement, both sides will promote information exchange, as well as training and investment in tourism to help businesses link up and work together.

Vietnamese ambassador to France Le Kinh Tai highlighted events that are likely to attract French tourists such as the Hue Festival in June 2010, the Celebration of the Thang Long-Hanoi 1000^th anniversary in October 2010, and French week in Hanoi in November 2010.