Mr. LA QUOC KHANH

Mr La Quoc Khanh, born 1958, is an expert who has many years of experience in tourism promotIon and destination marketing for Ho Chi Minh City. He has been working for 20 years in tourism public governance. Being a dynamic, innovative, decisive and dare to take action are some of the characters of Mr Khanh. He successfully proposed and has been accepted to run a “Southern Motherland Cultural and Tourism Festival” for Ho Chi Minh City since 1999, a corner stone for other serial tourism events in the subsequent years. He is an author of “Mekong Delta Fruit Fair”, “International Delicious festival”, “Thang Long suisine in Mekong Delta”, “International Tourism Exhibition – ITE”, “Tourism Days”, “Welcome to New Year Eve”, “Ho Chi Minh City – a hundred exotics”, etc. Responsibility in the Summer Program July 2019: Intangible heritage of Saigon and Southern land of Mekong Delta.

Mr. PHAN XUAN ANH

Phan Xuan Anh has been the President of Viet Excursions since 2000. Having been in the tourism business for more than 25 years – as a tour guide, marketer and tour operator for cruise lines at ports in Vietnam and Cambodia – he has accumulated a wealth of knowledge about cruise services, port operations, developing tours around ports and promoting ports to the cruise lines. With that, he has also contributed his experience to help local governments to plan policies to develop cruise tourism in Vietnam. To develop more facilities for the cruise industry, he invested in kayak facilities and tours in Sihanoukville port in Cambodia and in the World Bio sphere of Can Gio in Ho Chi Minh city. To enhance the quality of serving cruise passengers, he also invested in the building of two eco resorts along the Mekong river in the south of Vietnam and along the Perfume river in central Vietnam. His day-to-day responsibilities include developing new tours and facilities for the cruise business in the region. Responsible in the Summer Programme – July 2019: Ancient Residential Architecture in Saigon and Mekong Delta

Mr. NGUYEN QUOC KY

Mr. Nguyễn Quốc Kỳ is chairman of the Board, General Director and Founder of Vietravel, a leading travel company in Vietnam after 23 years of operation, with more than 1,200 employees and branches throughout the country. The company has representative offices in France, Australia, USA, Singapore, Thailand and Cambodia. Vietravel is a local business partner in tourism development, involving in projects such as “Morning and Live” in Huế, and organizing “Free walking tour” – a free tour for visitors to experience the real local life and promoting new flight routes of Cần Thơ – Bangkok, Cần Thơ – Đà Lạt… The company has received the World Travel Awards for five continuous years as well as the many awards from the Government and Ministry of Culture – Sports and Tourism of Vietnam. Vietravel aims to become the first multinational tour operator in Vietnam by 2025. Mr. Kỳ took an active role in establishing Vietnam’s Cuisine Culture Association, which introduces, promotes and preserves Vietnamese culture and history through traditional dishes and specialties. Responsible in the Summer Programme – July 2019: The culture of street foods & dining in Saigon and Ho Chi Minh City.

Prof. LÊ ĐÌNH BÍCH 

Prof. Lê Đình Bích – born 1958, lecturer at Faculty of Pedagogy, Can Tho University. Being known with a passion of traditional music, Prof. Lê uses Đờn ca tài tử (Vietnamese musics of Amateurs ) to introduce the migration of Vietnamese to the Mekong delta that locates at the southern part of Vietnam territory. The uniqueness of his lecture is an extensive cultural reflection of life stories and historical journeys of the migrants who are mainly Vietnamese, Chinese, Cham and Khmer.

Topic at the Summer Program – July 2019: Đờn ca tài tử (Music of Amateurs) is a representation of wisdom of migrants to Mekong delta. 

Mr. TỪ XUÂN LÃNH  

Mr. Từ Xuân Lãnh is the author of Phong tục Đất Phương Nam (Custom of Southern Region (of Vietnam)) who has spent years in studying culture and custom of the inhabitants living in Mekong delta. As a lawyer by education, Mr Từ has spent many years in discovering ways of life of different regions in Vietnam, particularly on their indigeneity and originalities.

Topic at the Summer Programme: Lullabies and melodies of inhabitants in Mekong delta.

Ms. ĐẶNG HỒNG LINH 

Ms. Đặng Hồng Linh is a former Chief of Culture Division of Ho Chi Minh City Culture and Sport Department. Holding a degree in business administration, the Hainanese-Vietnamese is also a cultural ideology expert by training. She spends substantial time for research on cultural impacts and changes.

Topic in the Summer Programme - 2019: The integration of Ming Huong people into Saigon inhabitant community. 

Dr. NGUYỄN ĐỨC TRÍ 

Dr. Nguyễn Đức Trí is Dean of School of Tourism, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City. He is in charge of the overall contents of the summer programme ‘Intangible heritage of Saigon and Mekong Delta’, July 2019. Stated as a lecturer in Marketing and Marketing research, Dr. Nguyễn pursued his career in Strategic and Hospitality management since 2000. Under his leadership, School of Tourism was formed in 2015 as one of the youngest but aggressive institutions of the international-oriented University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City. His current study is indigenous culture of Mekong delta and the initiation of international trade of this region.  

Topic in the Summer Programme, July 2019: Indigenous culture of Mekong delta.