HANOI, Vietnam – The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) is collaborating with Vietnam Airlines and India-based Jet Airways to organize a familiarization trip for Indian media and 22 leading travel firms to explore Vietnam’s popular tourist destinations between November 23 and 29.

VNAT will also cooperate with the Embassy of India in Vietnam to organize a tourism and aviation cooperation conference with attendance of enterprises from both countries on the last day of the field trip with an aim to lure more tourists from India.

Three years ago, India was firstly listed among potential markets for Vietnam’s tourism industry. However, the visitor-generating market had not grown well due to lack of direct flights linking two countries until recently.

Owing to the new daily air service connecting HCMC and two Indian major cities Delhi and Mumbai via Thailand’s Bangkok operated under a code-share agreement between Vietnam Airlines and Jet Airways, the local tourism sector now expects a strong growth with an annual number of 100,000 tourists in the coming time.

Naresh Goyal, chairman of the Indian airlines, said an average seat occupancy rate of 77% on the service after one-week operation showed a positive sign for introduction of a new direct link from Hanoi to New Delhi expected to be launched next year.

Pham Ngoc Minh, general director of Vietnam Airlines, said last year saw a total of 46,000 passengers travelling between the two countries by air, while the first half of this year achieved a growth rate of 25%.