AP inks pact with Vietnam Travel Association to promote inbound tourism by Buddhists from ASEAN

As part of the efforts to bring in 240 million Buddhist tourists from the ASEAN countries to visit Andhra Pradesh, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between the State Government and the Vietnam Travel Association (VTA).

The association represented by its chairman Cao Tri Dung and Special Chief Secretary, Tourism from AP Ajay Jain entered into the agreement here on Monday to promote tourism development with the ASEAN countries with a special focus on attracting the inbound tourists to AP's Buddhist Circuits & Tribal Circuits.

The ceremony was attended, among others, by

Harendhira Prasad, District Collector, Visakhapatnam and A. Srinivas, Deputy CEO, AP Tourism Authority (APTA).

The MoU is expected to open new doors for collaboration

to promote tourism development and cooperation between AP and Vietnam and enhance business opportunities for members of Vietnam International Travel Mart (VITM) to sell AP and India as a destination and look at the Buddhist Circuit of AP and to facilitate joint programmes, seminars and workshops.

The collaboration will strengthen cooperation in tourism, promoting investment in tourism infrastructure, research and development and foster cooperation between VITA and Tours and Travels Association of Andhra (TTAA) and promote mutual understanding between Vietnam and AP travel agents.

Speaking on the occasion Jain said that that Vietnam and India share a very strong relationship and recently AP Tourism Minister Kandula Durgesh had visited Vietnam and requested MYung to see how they extend the trip to all the Buddhist visiting Bodhgaya to AP.

Harendhira Prasad said that this was the first step to foster tourism with the eastern countries and to explore the huge potential.

Andhra Pradesh Tourism Forum (APTF) president K. Vijay Mohan said "we need to focus on the 240 Buddhist in the ASEAN and 640 million Buddhist in Japan, China, Korea and Taiwan by showcasing the importance of Buddhist monuments across AP."

Yung said his association will do the best to promote Andhra Pradesh and urged the government to give support in facilitating familiarisation trips to know each other in a better way.