Ottawa (VNA) –Vietnam and Canada enjoy a large room for their tourism and travel companies tocooperate, with the 250,000-strong Vietnamese community living, working andstudying in Canada serving as a bridge linking the two countries, watchers havesaid.

During the ongoing MontrealInternational Tourism and Travel Show which started on October 19, they furthersaid that tourism development creates an important chance helping connect theenterprises now that Vietnam is Canada’s largest trade partner in theAssociation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Watchers also held thatVietnam is a dynamic and modern country with many attractions, having experiencedchanges but still kept its traditionality. They affirmed that coming toVietnam, visitors will feel amused and surprised with the beauty of the landand people here.

This is the second time the VietnameseEmbassy has taken part in the Montreal International Tourism and Travel Showwhich attracted over 400 entities from about 100 countries all over the world.Publications distributed from Vietnam’s pavilion at the show brief visitors ofthe beauty of the country as well as its tourism potential and strength. Theparticipation is described as helping improve Canadian visitors’ knowledge onVietnam’s culture and open up many chances for the bilateral people-to-peopleexchanges.

A representative of the HanhTravel company said many Canadian people want to visit Vietnam, and rated thecountry as the most excellent in Southeast Asia.

Tourism has been taken asone of the key economic sectors of Vietnam, and developing tourism is astrategic orientation. In the first eight months of this year, over 10.4million foreigners visited Vietnam, an increase of 22.8 percent over the sameperiod last year. However, the figure of tourists from Canada is still modest,only 104,057 in the first eight months of this year and 138,242 for the wholeof last year.-VNA