Foreign travellers on a Hanoi street (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – More than one million international visitors have entered Hanoi from the outset of 2016, a 25 percent surge year-on-year, and the strongest growth recorded by the tourism sector in recent years, according to the municipal Department of Tourism.
Over 5.6 million visits were made to Hanoi by both international and domestic travellers, rising 10 percent from the same period in 2015. The city raked in 16 trillion VND from tourism services, up 13 percent against the same time last year.
Along with upgrades made to tourism infrastructure, the city has paid attention to improving tourism product quality while spicing up its allure with a line-up of tourism products. Those include Ba Vi eco-tourism, Duong Lam ancient village community tourism, spiritual tourism at Giong festival, high-tech agricultural tourism and craft village tourism.
Attracting investments for the tourism sector is also among the city’s top priority. The city is calling on strategic investors to develop tourism in areas around the West Lake and the Hong River as well as build a specialised tourism site in outlying Dong Anh district.
In a bid to elevate Hanoi’s image in the eyes of international friends, the city has renovated methods to popularise and promote tourism in key markets like China, France, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the US.
Hanoi was listed by the Lonely Planet – the world’s popular travel guide book publisher – in the Top 10 best-value destinations for 2016. The city was also named among the top 5 best cities for low-budget vacations in 2015 by DrPrem, a renowned travel and tourism website.-VNA
