Vietnam’s domestic tourists reached 24 million in the first half of this
year, up by 12 percent against the same period last year, and 73.8
percent of this year’s target.
The domestic tourism market has
seen a continuous surge and is now a major driving force accelerating
tourism development in Vietnamese localities, said Nguyen Van Tuan,
General Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, in a
recent teleconference to review the sector’s six-month performance.
Notably, Vietnam’s key tourism localities maintained their growth and
affirm their leading role in the sector, including Ho Chi Minh City,
Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Da Nang, Quang Nam and Binh Thuan, he said.
Over the past time, a range of large-scale tourism facility projects
such as international quality hotels and resorts have gone into
operation, illustrating the country’s improvement in tourism
infrastructure and services, he added.
Vietnam’s progress shows
that the country is still an attractive destination in the eyes of
investors despite its economic difficulties, he said, adding that
Vietnam’s tourism is also highly valued by the international community
and tourism experts.
Since the beginning of this year, the sector has been honoured to receive many prestigious international awards.
Hanoi, HCM City, Hoi An (Quang Nam province) and Ha Long (Quang Ninh
province) received “ Top Destination in Asia ” awards from the
world’s greatest tourism website TripAdvisor.com.
The
website also ranked three Vietnamese museums, namely the War Remnants
Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology and the
Vietnam Women’s Museum in Hanoi, and the Hon Tam Resort and
Residences as the most favourite destinations in Asia.
In addition, street food in Vietnam is regarded as one of the ten most attractive around the world.
The aforesaid reputations help create an encouragement for the
domestic tourism’s development as well as show the attractiveness of
Vietnamese tourism in the eyes of the international community, Tuan
said.
However, the sector still reveals limitations and
shortcomings that need to be overcome to improve the country’s tourism
environment and promote the friendly, harmonious and hospitable image of
Vietnamese tourism.
Among the biggest challenges faced by the
sector over the past time were the phenomena of inviting domestic and
foreign travellers with insistence and cheating them in major tourist
destinations.
Therefore, one of the key missions specified by
the sector in this year’s remaining months is to focus on managing the
quality of tourism products, reorganising the tourism environment and
thoroughly dealing with the above-mentioned phenomena, according to
Tuan.
Specifically, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism
has completed a project on improving the tourism environment and
image of Vietnam.
Though the global economic downturn has had
negative impacts on tourism in numerous countries, Vietnam still sees an
impressive increase in foreign tourists.
The country received
more than 3.5 million foreign visitors in the year’s first half, up by
2.6 percent compared to the same period last year. Total earning from
tourism reached 105 billion VND (4.9 million USD).
In
diversifying tourism products, Vietnam has attached importance to
expanding various new tourism models such as land, waterway and sea
routes to create a network between destinations in mountainous, highland
and delta regions and those in coastal areas and islands.
In
addition, the sector has created new specific tourism types, namely
walking, mountain climbing, sea-diving, cave discovering, eco-tourism,
sports and entertainment, and meetings, incentives, conferencing and
exhibitions (MICE) tourism.-VNA