HANOI, 19 July 2019: Vietnam honoured winners of the 2019 Tourism Awards, earlier this week, at a ceremony in the Vietnamese capital.
Following on from celebrations that marked the 59th anniversary of Vietnam’s tourism sector (1960-2019) the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism hosted the Vietnam Tourism Awards.
Established in 1999, the awards honour leading enterprises that have made a significant contribution to tourism development, according to Vietnam National Administration of Tourism chairman Nguyen Trung Khanh
In his speech, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Ngoc Thien praised the travel industry for its “highly valued performance over 59 years of development.”
In 2018, Vietnam welcomed 15.5 million international arrivals, up 19.9% over 2017. International visitors to Vietnam in the first six months of 2019 reached 8.5 million arrivals, up 7.5% over the same period last year.
This year’s awards were given to leading firms across 16 categories, including the top 10 tour operators (inbound, outbound, and domestic), the top 10 hotels (five and four-star) top airline in passenger uplift, the airline with highest passenger growth, top five tourist transport businesses, top five cruise lines, top five restaurants, top five entertainment zones, top 10 golf courses, top five tourism investors, top five tourism training institutions and the top five tourism media companies.
Winners identified by Vietnam News Agency:
The top 10 five-star hotels included Intercontinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort, Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi, JW Marriott Hotel Hanoi, Four Seasons, The Nam Hai and Ben Thanh Rex Hotel.
Top five entertainment tourist sites honoured were Sun World Ha Long Park (Quang Ninh), Sun World Ba Na Hills (Da Nang), Vinpearl Land Phu Quoc (Kien Giang), Dam Sen Cultural Park (HCM City) and Bao Son Paradise Park (Hanoi).
For the first time, the Vietnam Tourism Awards honoured media agencies, with Vietnam Television, VnExpress.net, Vietnam Journey Channel (Radio Voice of Vietnam), Culture newspaper (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), and Vietnamplus.vn (Vietnam News Agency) scooping the gong awards.
If Thailand has the same “Media Award”, TTR, having been reporting quality tourism news for decades, will win hands down! Come on, Thailand, just do it!