Saigon tourist planning office in San Francisco

HANOI, Aug 6 (AFP) - Saigontourist, Vietnam's biggest tour operator, said Wednesday it is planning to open a trade and tourism promtion centre in San Francisco.

The government-owned company's plans include a Vietnamese restaurant and office space to be rented out to firms wanting to drum up business in the US market.

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"So far we have no opening date because there are still many issues to be sorted out but we hope it will happen in the not too distant future," said Nguyen Tuan Quang, a marketing executive for Saigontourist.

Company managers are expected to visit the Californian city soon to decide on the location of the office.

Slated to cost five million dollars, the project would be the company's largest investment overseas. Saigontourist currently has representative offices in Frankfurt and Tokyo.

Quang said the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee had pledged preferential loans of 1.5 million dollars to fund the new office.

Last year the number of foreign visitors to Vietnam swelled 13 percent to 2. 63 million, but the figure plunged 17.8 percent in the first six months of this year compared with the same period in 2002 due to the outbreak of SARS.

The government's previous target of 2.8-3.0 million foreign visitors for 2003 was subsequently revised downwards to about 1.8 million.

ben/dv

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