The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) will host a function to honor foreign travel agents for sending big numbers of international tourists to the country and also introduce new products to them, an official said.

VNAT chief Nguyen Van Tuan said his agency in collaboration with Vietnam’s inbound travel companies would single out important partners from 10 key markets of Vietnam’s tourism and invite these representatives to Vietnam for a special thank-you event scheduled for late next month. This is the first time the agency carries out this marketing activity.

“We will have further discussions on this program this afternoon. We will select five companies from each market. The activity will help us enhance relationships with foreign partners and promote the country’s tourism to important people,” Tuan told the Daily on Thursday.

Local travel firms have repeatedly suggested VNAT organize such a program to express gratitude to Vietnam’s big foreign tourism partners to help prop up the country’s inbound tourism segment.

The tourism authorities in neighboring countries such as Thailand and Singapore have been carrying out similar programs for many years, and have presented Vietnamese travel companies several awards.

Along with the new marketing activity, VNAT has plans for other activities this year to promote the country’s tourism image, including the participation in seven international travel expos in Cambodia, Germany, England, Russia and others.

The agency will also organize familiarization trips and press trips for guests from important markets like France, China, Japan, South Korea and Europe, and carry out international sport and tourism events in the country.

Vietnam’s tourism welcomed nearly 5.05 million foreign visitors last year, up from 3.78 million in 2009. China still ranked first as the biggest source market for the inbound sector with over 905,000 visitors, up 74.5% year-on-year, followed by South Korea with nearly 496,000 up 37.7%, Japan with over 442,000 people, up 24%, the U.S with nearly 431,000 up 6.9% and Taiwan with over 334,000 guests up 23.7%.

VNAT expects foreign arrivals to reach around 5.3 to 5.5 million this year.