Vietnam Airlines will offer 157 tickets at a discount of up to 75% for foreign buyers who will call at the International Travel Expo, HCMC 2011 (ITE-HCMC) in September.

This is the largest financing scheme of the airline ever for this national tourism promotion event, said Nguyen Bao Anh, deputy head of tourism promotion, festivals and events at the HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Foreign airlines such as China Airlines, Philippine Airlines, Garuda Airlines and Turkish Airlines will also supply cheaper tickets for foreign buyers to visit the forthcoming fair set for September 14 to 17.

“We’ve had good cooperation with the air carriers. The advisory committee has selected 150 out of the 310 buyers who have registered online to buy the discount tickets. We will work with more airlines to offer lower ticket prices for another 50 eligible buyers,” Anh said.

The buyer selection process is scheduled to finish by August 15. Domestic and foreign companies have registered for 178 stalls at the expo.

The event, which will also feature meetings between the buyer and the seller, will for the first time come with the theme “Four nations - One destination” to promote tourism in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, instead of the first three nations as in previous years.

The four countries will take the occasion of the expo to call for investment at an international conference on tourism investment in 2011. Their tourism ministers will update investors about their respective country’s tourism development plans and those for attracting investment in tourism projects.