The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has kicked off a three-city roadshow in Australia.

Supported by Singapore Airlines, the Vietnam Tourism Roadshow will include events in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne from 15-18 August 2017. The event will be compered and co-hosted by Linh Le, managing director of Vietnam-based Asia DMC.

The roadshow is aimed at promoting Vietnam’s potential as a tourist destination to the Australian travel trade, highlighting potential attractions and products, as well as providing an opportunity for Vietnamese suppliers and stakeholders to meet and do business with Australian travel agencies.

Australia has been identified as one of the key tourism markets for Vietnam. A total of 320,678 Australians visited the Southeast Asian country in 2016, which marked a 5.6% increase compared to the previous year and made Australia the eighth largest international source market for Vietnam.

In the first seven months of 2017, 217,977 Aussies have visited Vietnam, up 11.4% year-on-year, and this number is expected to increase in the coming months due to the expansion of air connections between the two countries, relaxed visa regulations and the rising number of Australian travellers seeking cultural and ecological tourism experiences.

The Vietnam Tourism Roadshow opened at the Crown Perth Hotel on Tuesday. It will then move on to the Pullman Hyde Park Hotel in Sydney on Thursday, before concluding at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Melbourne on Friday.