Ha Long Bay in Quang Ninh Province. More than 70 government officials and personnel from travel agencies, hotels as well as academics from Viet Nam and South Korea exchanged notes and shared best practices at a tourism workshop held yesterday in HCM City. — Photo 24h.com.vn

HCM CITY (VNS) — More than 70 government officials and personnel from travel agencies, hotels as well as academics from Viet Nam and South Korea exchanged notes and shared best practices at a tourism workshop held yesterday in HCM City.

The ASEAN-Korea Culture and Tourism Promotion Workshop was organised by the ASEAN-Korea Centre in cooperation with the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism.

The workshop aimed to increase the competitiveness of the Vietnamese tourism sector by providing knowledge about South Korean culture. The goal is to improve the quality of services given to South Korean tourists.

"The workshop is a platform for travel agents and tourism enterprises from the two countries to further strengthen tourism cooperation," said La Quoc Khanh, deputy director of the city's Tourism Department.

In the first five months of the year, HCM City welcomed more than 123,200 Korean visitors, a year-on-year increase of 16 per cent, Khanh said.

Over the period, the number of Vietnamese tourists visiting South Korea rose by 7.5 per cent to nearly 14,500.

Since its inception in 2009, the ASEAN-Korea Centre has implemented various cultural and tourism exchanges programmes, such as the ASEAN Culture and Tourism Fair, ASEAN-Korea Tourism Development Workshop and ASEAN-Korea Youth Network, Kim Young-sun, the centre's Secretary General, said.

In the next six months, the centre plans to introduce tourism attractions in Viet Nam through several programmes, including the ASEAN Culture and Tourism Fair and ASEAN Road Show.

Last year, the number of two-way visitors reached nearly one million, including 833,000 visits to Viet Nam and 142,000 visits to South Korea.

The ASEAN-Korea Culture and Tourism Promotion Workshop has been implemented since 2009 to promote tourism exchanges between ASEAN and South Korea.

This year, the workshop was held in Cambodia in May, and after Viet Nam, it will be held in Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. — VNS