Travel show ends with positive feedback from business

By Dao Loan - The Saigon Times Daily Tran Thai Nguyen (L), assistant director of sales and marketing of the five-star Rex Hotel, discusses with a foreign visitor at the International Travel Expo in HCMC late last week - Photo: Dao Loan HCMC – The sixth International Travel Expo closed in HCMC last Saturday with positive feedback from local tourism services providers given a rise in foreign buyers and promising deals at the event. The organizers of the three-day exhibition at the Saigon Convention and Exhibition Center in District 7 are still taking formal reports from exhibitors but what local exhibitors have said indicates better results than last year’s event. Doan Thi Thanh Tra, marketing manager of Saigontourist Travel Service Co., told the Daily that the tour operators met 55 potential buyers who pledged to cooperate, send tourists and hold more talks. “We met product managers and people in charge of market development and will have more negotiations later,” she said, adding many buyers in previous events came to seek information only. According to the organizing committee, there were around 170 local exhibitors and about 150 foreign buyers at the event, up by nearly 50 from the last travel expo. Other local sellers told the Daily that in the previous shows, many foreign people posed themselves as buyers but just visited the events to sell their products and services. “The event did not attract as many buyers as professional events in foreign countries but we met real buyers there. It’s better than the last events,” said Nguyen Minh Quyen, deputy director of Ben Thanh Tourist Travel Service Center. The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism and the HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism joined hands with IIR Exhibitions Pte Ltd and VINEXAD to organize the expo.