17th East Asia Inter-Regional Tourism Forum officially opens

The 17th General Assembly of the East Asia Inter-Regional Tourism Forum (EATOF 17) opened in Quang Ninh this morning, bringing together various tourism managers and operators from countries across the region.

The event attracted roughly 300 delegates, including domestic and foreign speakers from the World Tourism Organisation, UNESCO as well as tourism experts from universities.

The EATOF 17 in association with EATOF's 20th anniversary warms to the theme "Tourism recovery in East Asia in the new normal era”. The event held following a two-year hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic aims to speed tourism recovery and promote the sustainable development of this sector.

Speaking at the ceremony, Chairman of Quang Ninh provincial People’s Committee, Nguyen Tuong Van, expressed his great honour to the fact that Quang Ninh has become the venue for the East Asia Inter-Regional Tourism Forum for the second time.

After more than 10 years since Quang Ninh first hosted the 10th EATOF, the province has done its utmost to developing almost socio-economic sectors and now acts as one of the poles of economic growth in North Vietnam.

The EATOF 17 presents is a prime opportunity for Quang Ninh to promote and popularise its image as a ‘friendly, safe and attractive’ destination, he highlighted. In addition, Quang Ninh hopes to promote tourism development linkages between EATOF member provinces in particular, as well as countries around the world in general.

In his speech, the governor of Gangwon province in the Republic of Korea, Kim Jin-tae, underlined the significant role in promoting tourism cooperation among members in the past 20 years.

He also noted that international tourism is now in the process of reopening, with East Asia set to be at the centre of the new era of tourism. EATOF will therefore lead the development of the tourism industry of member states moving forward and seek to develop a new model for the global tourism industry in the post-COVID era.

The three-day event will feature an opening ceremony in both online and offline formats, three discussion sessions, a meeting of the EATOF Standing Committee, bilateral meetings, a meeting of provincial Governors, the signing ceremony of EATOF joint statement, and a press conference.

Delegates are also due to tour several tourist destinations throughout Ha Long and Cam Pha cities, as well as Van Don district.

EATOF was established in 1999 in the Republic of Korea with the membership of different provinces of East Asian countries.

10 EATOF members include Cebu province (Philippines), Gangwon (Korea), Jilin (China), Luang Prabang (Laos), Quang Ninh (Vietnam), Sarawak (Malaysia), Siem Reap (Cambodia), Tottori (Japan), Tuv (Mongolia), and Yogyakarta (Indonesia). Quang Ninh was the forum’s observer in 2004 and officially joined it in 2006.