• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Hentschel and Commerce Secretary Gutierrez's Vietnam Mission Triggers Tourism to America

Posted on: Tuesday, 5 February 2008, 00:00 CST

Noel Irwin Hentschel, CEO of AmericanTours International (ATI), the nation's largest American owned and privately held inbound tour operator in North America, journeyed to Vietnam in November with US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez to lay the ground work for increased travel between the two nations.

As a result of that goodwill mission, ATI recently hosted its first Vietnamese group visit to the United States. Assisted by bi-lingual Vietnamese-speaking ATI guides on a seven-day tour by ATI motorcoach, the traveling band of select LG Electronics senior management execs from Vietnam visited Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, the City of Laughlin, Nevada and Hoover Dam.

Hentschel, ATI's CEO/Chair, who is also chief travel advisor to the US Dept. of Commerce and vice-chair of the US Travel and Tourism Board, said the many requests for ATI to handle groups from Vietnam are a direct benefit of her November business trip to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with Secretary Gutierrez and other US business leaders.

With the intention of advancing international trade and tourism between the two cultures, the business delegation met with Vietnamese political leaders Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and President Nguyen Minh Triet. Hentschel's primary focus was to establish relationships with the government of Vietnam and their main tour operators and airlines for both in-bound and out-bound travel between North America and Vietnam.

"We have product in place for Vietnam business and leisure travel and government delegations to all 50 states in the United States of America, including providing hotels and all ground arrangements with Vietnam speaking assistance," she said. Hentschel also stated that ATI's Asia division provides comprehensive travel arrangements in all Asian languages.

The ATI executive said she found the visa issue is apparently not the problem it used to be. "Both US authorities and Vietnamese tour operators say visas are now of little concern. Even Ambassador Michalak said recently that more visas would soon be issued to Vietnamese travelers."

Hentschel explained that the travel boom to the US may be due to several things including the sharply rising Vietnamese incomes and easier availability of visas. "In the past, Vietnamese could only expect to get business or diplomatic visas," she revealed, "but now it's possible for them to be issued tourist visas."

Noel Irwin Hentschel's ATI, in addition to being the largest inbound travel company in North America, is the private label internet provider of exclusive travel product for the Automobile Association of America (AAA) and the Canadian Automobile Association's (CAA) 50 million members. Her ATI brings $3 billion into the US economy annually. Based in Los Angeles adjacent to LAX, ATI has offices in New York, San Francisco, Washington DC, Miami, Orlando, Honolulu, Maui and Beijing, China.

Source: Business Wire

More News in this Category