Emirates has pledged its commitment to supporting tourism into Vietnam from Kuwait, with a special focus on Ho Chi Minh City, by signing a marketing agreement to promote tourism to the city. The agreement was signed by Omar Al Banna, Emirates’ Area Manager for Kuwait and Iraq and Mr. Le Truong Hien Hoa- Director of Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Promotion Center

Emirates, the world's largest international airline, has pledged its commitment to supporting tourism into Vietnam from Kuwait, with a special focus on Ho Chi Minh City, by signing a marketing agreement to promote tourism to the city.

Nguyen Thanh Phong, the Chairman of the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, led a high-level delegation and working visit to Kuwait on 29 October 2018. On this occasion, Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, Department of Tourism, Department of External Relations and Investment and Trade Promotion Centre of Ho Chi Minh City (ITPC), Embassy of Vietnam in the State of Kuwait, in cooperation with the Representative of the Ministerial Authorities in the State of Kuwait, as well as trade and investment partners from both countries, held a conference on "Trade, Investment and Tourism Promotion into Ho Chi Minh City in Kuwait 2018."

At the conference, Emirates signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to facilitate tourism to Vietnam's largest and most visited city. The airline will mutually collaborate with the Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Promotion Center (HTPC) to promote Ho Chi Minh City as a tourism destination.

The agreement was signed by Omar Al-Banna, Emirates' Area Manager for Kuwait and Iraq and Le Truong Hien Hoa- Director of Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Promotion Center, in the presence of Nguyen Thanh Phong, Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee; Trinh Minh Nanh, Ambassador of Vietnam in Kuwait, Phan Nguyen Nhu Khue; Deputy head delegation of National Assembly Delegation of Ho Chi Minh City; and Vo Van Hoan, Chief of staff, Office of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee; Bui Ta Hoang Vu, Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism.

Commenting on the signing of the MoU, Omar Al-Banna, Emirates Manager in Kuwait & Iraq said, "Vietnam is a very important destination within Emirates' network and we are pleased to collaborate on joint promotional activities that will leverage the route's success and increase passenger traffic to Ho Chi Minh City from Kuwait."

The agreement is also part of a series of activities that will strengthen the relationship between Vietnam and Kuwait. We aim to create more demand for travel from Kuwait to Ho Chi Minh City, and we look forward to partnering with the Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Promotion Centre to showcase the city's offerings as a tourist destination and key business hub for passengers traveling for both leisure and business. Through a dynamic joint program to include promotional events, roadshows and tourism exchanges, Emirates hopes to make a significant contribution to boosting tourism and trade in Vietnam."

Emirates has enjoyed tremendous success in its operations to Vietnam with non-stop daily flights from Dubai to both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Since launching in 2012 with a service to Ho Chi Minh City, Emirates has carried more than 1.25 million passengers on the route.

The Agreement will see promotional activities such as facilitating trade and business familiarization trips to attend the Hosted Buyer Program at The 15th Ho Chi Minh City International Travel Expo 2019, which will be held in September 2019 from 5th to 7th, attendance of other tourism trade shows and fairs, trade familiarization trips, holding presentations and workshops, promotional collaboration to be undertaken jointly by Emirates and the relevant tourism bodies in Ho Chi Minh City, amongst other initiatives.

According to the World Travel & Tourism Council's report "Travel & Tourism Economic Impact 2018 - Vietnam," the total contribution to Vietnam's travel and tourism to GDP was USD20.6 billion in 2017, accounting for 9.4% of total GDP, and is expected to grow by 6.2% in 2018. Travel and Tourism in Vietnam directly supported almost 2.5 million jobs (4.6% of total employment) which is forecasted to rise by 1.9% in 2018 and a further 1.5% per annum to reach 2,917,000 jobs (4.9% of total employment) in 2028. In terms of importance of the travel and tourism sector's total contribution to GDP, Vietnam ranked in the 47th position out of 185 countries in 2017 and ranks 31st in terms of forecasted growth of the sector for 2018.

In addition to the daily service to Ho Chi Minh City since 2012, Emirates also launched its daily service to Hanoi with a stopover in Yangon in 2016, which became a direct flight between Dubai and Hanoi, one year later. The daily services to both Vietnamese cities are operated by Boeing 777-300ER aircraft in 2-class configurations, with an overall capacity of 5,992 seats per week between Economy and Business Class. Emirates has a fleet of 270 aircraft and flies to 162 destinations in 86 countries and territories across six continents.