The ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) opened on Monday in Hanoi, with the presence of Tourism Ministers from the ten member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The first session discussed how to advertise the image of ASEAN to the world and the mutual-recognition agreement.

Over 2.65 million visitors came to Ha Long Bay in 2008, an increase of 48.8 percent over 2007.  Of those 1.71 million were foreign visitors, a 67.6 percent increase, the Bay’s management board has said.

A nationwide promotion is one of the urgent measures being taken by the tourism sector to stimulate tourism in order to achieve the sector’s target of welcoming 4.5 million of foreign tourists in 2009.

2008 was a bad year for Vietnam’s tourism industry, as the number of international visitors totalled 4.2 million, 87 percent of projections. In an effort to boost tourism in 2009, tour companies have developed a strategy.

A steep rise in tour prices is largely to blame for the declining number of foreign visitors to the country, according to industry experts.

Tourists visiting Sapa Township in northern Lao Cai province in the springtime could hardly forget the vast number of blossoming peach trees.

Nearly half of international travelers to Vietnam have not learned of a tourism route named the East-West Economic Corridor which stretches 1,450 kilometers from Vietnam's central city of Danang to Laos and Thailand, shows a survey.

In the first day of 2009, about 1,100 visitors from Germany, Italy and France will ship to the central city of Da Nang. On the same day, another 130 tourists will fly to the city from Thailand.

The  central provinces of Binh Dinh, Gia Lai, Kon Tum and Phu Yen signed on Sunday a memorandum of understanding on a plan for an air route for Binh Dinh and Ha Noi.

The number of travelers arriving in Vietnam has decreased considerably in recent months but while neighbors draw up solutions Vietnam tourism is fumbling for answers.