Secretary of the Party Committee of Hanoi Hoang Trung Hai (standing) addresses a working session with the city Department of Tourism (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – Secretary of the Party Committee of Hanoi Hoang Trung Hai has asked the city’s tourism sector to invest further in the development of tourism products and infrastructure in order to promote the city’s image and attract more tourists.
Hanoi’s tourism sector has directly contributed 4.15 percent and indirectly contributed 10.12 percent to the city’s GDP, he noted, holding that the figures show the high development potential of the sector, which should be optimised through further investment.
Initially, the sector needs better performance in state management, while coordinating closely with localities across the city to seek tourism sites with potential for development, he said.
The Hanoi leader also suggested that the sector work with departments and agencies to strengthen promotion of city tourism, with a stronger application of information technology in introducing food, transport, accommodation, and shopping services.
In particular, the sector should pay greater attention to the building of a code of conduct in tourism, he stated.
In the first two months of 2019, Hanoi welcomed nearly 4.9 million visitors, up 10.7 percent compared to the same period last year, including 1.15 million foreigners, a rise of 16.5 percent.
Total earnings from the sector during the January-February period reached 17.31 trillion VND (744 million USD), an increase of 34.7 percent year-on-year.
In 2019, Hanoi aims to lure more than 28.9 million tourists, up 10.1 percent over 2018, including over 7 million foreign visitors, up 17 percent. Tourism revenue in the year is expected to rise 34 percent to 103.8 trillion VND (4.46 billion USD).
According to Director of the Hanoi Department of Tourism Tran Duc Hai, the city’s tourism sector is striving to become a spearhead economic sector with stable growth and greater contributions to the transformation of the city’s economic structure.
The sector must make adequate investment in developing the quality and number of tourism products, while attracting more investment, especially from the community, to the sector.
Among the tourism sites chosen for investment are Thang Long Royal Citadel, the Old Quarter, Duong Lam ancient village, Bat Trang pottery village, and Van Phuc silk village.
Hanoi has nearly 3,500 accommodation facilities with more than 60,800 rooms.
In 2018, the US-based Time magazine listed Hanoi as one of the top eight destinations for all visitors, while Mastercard named it in the top 10 Southeast Asian cities that attract the highest number of business visitors, and Airbnb chose Hanoi as one of the two Vietnamese cities with the highest number of booked rooms. –VNA
VNA
