Vietnam could benefit from Bali bombing<\/p>\n
Agence France-Presse, Hanoi<\/p>\n
Vietnam expects to welcome more international tourists in the
\nwake of the devastating bomb blasts on Indonesia's resort island
\nof Bali that rocked Southeast Asia, officials said Monday.<\/p>\n
\"With a world of so many upheavals, especially after the bomb
\nblasts in Bali, the Philippines and the hostage seizure in
\nMoscow, there is a possibility that more tourists will head to
\nVietnam\", Nguyen Van Tuyet, a spokesman for the Vietnam Tourism
\nAdministration, told AFP.<\/p>\n
\"The country could exceed its target to attract 2.5 million
\ninternational visitors and 12 million domestic holidaymakers this
\nyear.\"<\/p>\n
From January to October, more than 2.17 million tourists
\nvisited Vietnam, pouring US$1.27 billion into the communist
\ncountry's coffers, a 13.3-percent increase over the same period
\nin 2001.<\/p>\n
Visitors were most likely to hail from China, Japan, the
\nUnited States, France or South Korea.<\/p>\n
There was also a large increase in visitors from neighboring
\nSoutheast Asian states and from European countries, in addition
\nto the traditional French or German tourists.<\/p>\n
Vietnam was to establish tourism promotion offices in France
\nand Japan in November and to soon sign an agreement on tourism
\ncooperation with Japan and Malaysia.<\/p>\n
The communist state was recently ranked by the Political and
\nEconomic Risk Consultancy (PERC) as the safest Asia-Pacific
\ncountry for business.<\/p>\n
A report from PERC said as Vietnam does not have a sizable
\nIslamic population of its own, it would be hard to imagine al-
\nQaeda -- responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United
\nStates -- trying to launch any attacks here.<\/p>\n
A Southeast Asian terror group with believed ties to al-Qaeda
\nis suspected of involvement in the bombings on Bali, which left
\nnearly 200 mostly foreign tourists dead Oct. 12.<\/p>\n
In ten months, Vietnam has licensed 17 foreign-invested
\ntourism projects with a total capital of $133.2 million.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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