Golf tournament positive for Viet Nam tourism

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Tuan Anh on Wednesday threw his weight behind the Ho Tram Open, an Asian Tour sanctioned professional golf event to be played from December 3 to 6, underlining the significance of world-class sports events to Viet Nam's tourism growth.

"To host an event of this stature requires not only the vision and insight to create it, but the willingness to invest," he said.

"The Ho Tram Open will act as a powerful shop-window into Viet Nam's burgeoning status as a global tourism hub, positioning Ho Tram in the minds of not only golfers, but holiday-makers around the globe."

The tournament will be broadcast live on VTV and K+ domestically and distributed to over 650 million homes worldwide, providing an unprecedented platform for promoting the event and the destination.

The competition will bring some of the world's best golfers to Viet Nam, including Sergio Garcia, Ryder Cup Captain and a former British Open champion, and Darren Clarke, a former US Open champion.

Viet Nam's top player, Michael Tran, will play alongside them and a host of the Asian Tour's best players.

"Viet Nam has so much to offer visitors from around the world, whether it is the searing vistas of the mountainous highlands to the 2,000km long coastline that we at Ho Tram call home, and the Open in December will provide an amazing showcase of this amazing land to a global audience," Colin Pine, general director of the Ho Tram Project Company, said.