HCMC – The Tourism Authority of Thailand’s HCMC Office has announced five Vietnam travel agencies that have won The Friends of Thailand awards.
The five are Saigontourist Travel Service, Vietravel Marketing and Tourist Company, Tan Dinh Trade and Travel Service Company (known as Fiditourist), Ben Thanh Tourist, and TST Tourist.
The Thai tourism authority has also presented a personal award to Duong Thi Thu Thuy, reporter of Travel & Entertainment magazine, and an international press award to Doanh Nhan Sai Gon newspaper.
The Friends of Thailand awards are designed to honor individuals, organizations and tourism companies in recognition of their contributions to the tourism development of the “Land of Smile”. The international press award is for articles that introduce and promote images, country, people and new tourist destinations in Thailand.
The Friends of Thailand was launched by Tourism Authority of Thailand in 1996 and every two years, the awards are presented to contributors to Thai tourism. The 2010 award ceremony will be held in Bangkok in late September.
Vietravel, one of the five award winners, says that over the past ten years, the number of tourists traveling to Thailand under its arrangement has leapt over 20 times. Its average tourism growth for the Thailand sector is 25-35%.
In the first six months of the year, the number of people booking Thailand tours at Vietravel was nearly 15,000, and the tour operator expects to arrange tours to Thailand for a total of 25,000 tourists, up 20% from last year.
Every year, Thailand welcomes around 14 million international tourists, including 30,000 from Vietnam, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
