Attending the ceremony were Vice Chairwomen of Hanoi People's Committee Nguyen Bich Ngoc; Deputy General Director of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) Nguyen Manh Cuong; Director General, Bureau of Industrial and Labor Affairs Tokyo Metropolitan Government - Chairperson of CPTA Mitsuru Nakanishi; delegations of CPTA member cities and two observers cities; representatives of Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, VNAT, Hanoi Tourism Association, embassies of member cities' countries, airlines, businesses, press agencies.

Addressing at the ceremony, Ms. Nguyen Bich Ngoc said "This is the third opportunity that Hanoi city to be the host city of the CPTA Annual Meeting. It is gratifying to note that the agenda of meeting aims to discuss the implementation of the campaign, the joint projects such as "Welcome to Asia" campaign; "One Asia Pass" joint project as well as "The Improvement hospitality" campaign. At the Meeting, all city representatives discuss to promote its tourism potential, to strengthen comprehensive cooperation in tourism training human resources, to advance solution on Asia tourism development among representatives of member cities and private tourism sector".

Speaking at the event, Mr. Mitsuru Nakanishi emphasized that in recent years, the international travel market has faced an extremely severe environment caused by the prolonged global economic downturn and natural disasters. Given these circumstances, it is of the greatest importance for the large cities of Asia to make joint efforts to expand mutual exchange in tourism. Such collaborative efforts will surely lead to the greater tourism vitalization of Asia as a whole.

At the same day, "Welcome to Asia" exhibition also was opened at Horizon Hotel to introduce the tourism images of member cities, cultural performance, and typical tourist products of enterprises. The exhibition lasts till October 12, 2012.

The Council for Promotion of Tourism in Asia (CPTA) chairperson and the Secretariat are Tokyo city and member cities including Tokyo, New Delhi, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Jakarta, Seoul, Taipei, and Hanoi. Besides, Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) and Tomsk cities (Russia) take part in CPTA as a role of a supervisor. CPTA operates based on the principle and objective of implementing successfully the Campaign "Welcome to Asia" and other related activities for the prosperity and sustainable development of ANMC (the Asian Network of Major Cities); promoting activities to attract more tourists from North America, Europe, Asia, Atlantic Ocean and other target markets; propagating, advertising to attract tourists to Asia through joint projects and promotion campaigns; promoting cooperation relations amongst cities and tourism promotion management agencies with organization, businesses of member cities.

Hong Thanh