Vu The Binh, Director of the Travel Department of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, said that activities were being taken to improve services and tour guides quality, and to address undercutting among local tour operators. Cooperation with tourism agencies of Thailand and Laos is also being bolstered to increase the number of visitors from the region, he said.

“We need to address unfairly competition between travel companies first, and to improve the quality of tour guides and make attractive tours for Thai and travelers from ASEAN,” he said.

Binh said the tourism agency and relevant authorities have agreed to join hands to arrange activities to welcome overland travelers via border gates in the central region.

Under the support of the tourism agency, 22 travel firms, mostly in the region, have established a club to improve services instead of undercutting one another.

Binh said VNAT and the Tourism Authority of Thailand early this month had inked an agreement on tourism cooperation for the central region. The agency will meet with the national tourism agency of Laos for similar cooperation.

Thai travelers are the target guests for the program, he said.

“We want to develop the region as an attractive destination for Thai and travelers from ASEAN,” Binh said.

Thai tourists usually travel to the region via the border gates in the central region, such as Cau Treo, Cha Lo, Lao Bao and Nam Can. The tourism agency expects more than 100,000 Thai visitors to come to the region this year.

Binh said because of a lack of tour guides for Thai visitors, the tourism agency is going to help travel firms there to train quality tour guides.