From 23 to 27 August, 2019, Vietnam tourism sector organized a series of tourism promotion activities on the sideline of the American Travel Association (ASTA) Global Convention 2019 at The Diplomat Beach Resort, Hollywood, Florida, USA.

Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) had a booth to introduce Vietnam tourism, the "Vietnam NOW" campaign, tourism products, services and destinations suitable for the US market; display and introduce traditional handicrafts products such as water puppets, lacquer, pearl inlays, etc..

On the opening day of the event, the Chairman of VNAT Nguyen Trung Khanh had a meeting with Mr. Zane Kerby - CEO of the ASTA. At the meeting, Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh gave an overview of Vietnam tourism performance, potential and prospects of the US tourist market to Viet Nam. He expected ASTA to consider Viet Nam as a prioritized destination in the near future. He also confirmed that VNAT supported the Vietnam Tourism Association to propose Viet Nam hosting ASTA Destination Expo 2020.

On August 27, VNAT organized a Viet Nam tourism roadshow with about 130 guests from US travel agents, airlines, and press media.

The US outbound market is the world’s second largest (after China). In 2018, there were about 93 million US citizens traveling abroad (10% of which coming to Asia) with the total spending of more than 245 billion US dollars.

For Viet Nam, the US market has always been among the top 5 source markets with relatively stable annual growth. Viet Nam attracted more than 687 thousand American visitors in 2018, up 12% over the previous year, of which 80% were overseas Vietnamese. In February 2019, the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that Viet Nam complies with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) safety standards and has been granted a Category 1 rating.  Some Vietnamese airlines are planning to open direct flights to the US in next 1or 2 years.

The US market to Viet Nam is forecasted to reach 1 million visitors by 2022.

ASTA, short for American Society of Travel Advisors, is the world's largest association of travel professionals with over 10,500 members from 140 countries and territories. ASTA members include travel advisors and the companies whose products they sell such as tours, cruises, hotels, car rentals, etc. ASTA is the leading advocate for travel advisors, the travel industry and the traveling public. In 2018, the outbound sales of ASTA members accounted for 83% of the total outbound sales of the entire US, equivalent to 204 billion US dollars.

The ASTA Global Convention 2019 took place from August 25-27, 2019 at The Diplomat Beach Resort, Hollywood, Florida, USA, attracting hundreds of outbound tour operators and about 200 tourism suppliers with many activities such as seminars, exhibition, networking.... This was a good opportunity for destination management organizations, travel enterprises to meet and establish partnerships, to update the information and development trends of the US and world tourism markets.

ADE-ASTA Destination Expo is an international destination event taking place annually in a different location every year. The event is dedicated to training of outbound U.S. travel advisors to become destination specialists in select countries. ADE activities include: (1) Introduction of destination, tourism products and services; (2) Connecting face-to-face with the US businesses; (3) Famtrip for US businesses to visit and experience the destination before recommending to their clients.

vietnamtourism.gov.vn