New Delhi: On the occasion of completion of 50 years of successful bilateral relations with Vietnam, the Indian Government is planning several new measures including opening its skies to the socialist republic and easing visa restrictions, in order to boost tourism.

"The Vietnamese Minister for Tourism Vo Thi Thang, who is in New Delhi to meet her Indian counterpart Renuka Chowdhury will discuss several proposals that will further this country's tourism ties with Vietnam," Vietnamese Ambassador, Tran Tong Khanh told reporters in New Delhi.

"Indian Government has officially agreed to direct flights to Hanoi in the near future for the promotion of tourism," Khanh said adding that a common project that is of high social and economic value is to be taken up, visa regulation might also be relaxed between the two countries, including schemes like 'visa on arrival' among other proposals which are likely to be discussed between the two Ministers tomorrow (Oct 18, 2004).

India already has similar arrangements with most of the countries in South East Asia including Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.

"After 50 years of Indo-Vietnam friendship, we are looking at more tourism opportunities with this country," Nguyen Quy Phuong, deputy director general of Tourism Department of Vietnam said.

"We have 14 million domestic travellers and have provisions to accommodate 4 million foreign tourists in hotels, our business sector and Government is also increasing investment in tourism sector and we plan to grow more in the years to come," Khanh said adding, "Eastern Europe and India are the sectors in which Vietnam is focussing now."

With more than 4.8 million Indian tourists heading to international destinations, "Vietnam tourism is now targeting India as its future market," he said.

Although the number of Indian tourists remain low at present, "we are determined to see a 20 per cent increase," he said.