Foreign visitors at the Temple of Literature in Hanoi (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – Hanoi has setitself a target to greet 35-39 million tourists by 2025, including 8-9 millionforeigners, earning about 151 trillion VND (6.53 billion USD), under the city’srecently-launched tourism development strategy with a view to 2030.
The capital city hopes to welcome 48-49million visitors by 2030, 13-14 million of them foreigners.
Hanoi will work to turn tourism into itsspearhead economic sector which also serves as a driving force for others. Itwill apply cutting-edge technology and take skilled human resources abreakthrough factor for tourism development.
To realise the targets, local authoritieswill bolster tourism infrastructure investment and resources which will be carriedout in a concerted and harmonious manner.
They are speeding up procedures ofconservation projects at the Thang Long Imperial Citadel and Duong Lam ancientvillage, and others to restore and develop cultural values in tandem withtourism in Bat Trang pottery village and Van Phuc silk village.
The city has rolled out incentives aimingat investment in shopping malls and transit areas for tourists, among others. Hanoiis also encouraging environmentally-friendly tourism facilities and prioritisingthe improvement of the products at tourist attractions.
The capital attracted just 6.29 millionvisitors in the first eight months of this year, tumbling 67.3 percentyear-on-year, with international arrivals down 75.6 percent to just 1.02million. Such figures have resulted in a large number of local travel companiessuspending operation while many hotels have shut their doors.
As the resurgence of COVID-19 in Vietnamhas been basically brought under control, the tourism sector of Hanoi has beenswiftly making plans to attract visitors again and gradually return to previouslevels of growth.
With this latest outbreak being contained,industry insiders now look forward to improved business performance.
Local travel companies are also moving toencourage customers to travel again, as all flight, train, and road routes tothe central city of Da Nang, a major tourism centre and where the secondCOVID-19 outbreak started, have been resumed and many localities reopenedplaces of interest.
There is only one week left before Hanoibegins to celebrate 1,010 years since it was established as Vietnam’s capital,called Thang Long at the time, with various activities such as a cultural week,a street festival, a craft village festival, a traditional boat race, a culinaryfestival, a calligraphy exhibition, and a dragon dance festival.
This represents an opportunity to promotelocal tourism after its long hiatus.
Many relic sites, places of interests, andentertainment venues have had their landscapes improved and new services openedto meet visitors’ demand.
Those activities focus on educating theyouth on the tradition of national construction and defence and honouring thehistorical and revolution values.
A ceremony to mark the anniversary inassociation with the city’s Patriotic Emulation Congress in the 2020-2025period will be held on October 10, with about 2,000 delegates expected toattend.
Representatives of internationalorganisations in Hanoi as well as revolutionaries and Heroic Vietnamese Motherswill also be invited. During the event, the city will honour 10 most excellentcitizens.
Incense offerings, exhibitions, culturalexchanges and sports activities will be held from October 1 to 15.
At the Temple of Literature - a must-seedestination for every visitor to Hanoi, its centre for cultural and scientificactivities is creating new mementos and introducing new methods of heritageeducation to inspire young visitors, while also developing night tourism byinstalling lighting to introduce the institution’s history.
Local entertainment venues are alsorevamping themselves to attract local visitors who are believed to be the besttarget in plans to recover the tourism sector at this point of time./.
