Night tour to Thang Long Imperial Citadel (Photo: VNA) The city has earned only 8.1 trillion VND (352.6 million USD)from tourism services, a year-on-year decrease of 57 percent.
Currently, Vietnam has not yet opened its doors tointernational tourists. The number of foreigners coming to Hanoi during thistime is modest, mainly experts and workers staying in Vietnam.
Therefore, the capital city’s tourism industry has activelyrestructured new tourism products with a view to better serving domestic tourists,such as a night tour to decipher Thang Long Imperial Citadel – a UNESCO-recognisedworld cultural heritage site, a folk experience tour to the Museum of Ethnology,or a night tour to the Hoa Lo prison relic site.
The city is designing and making a system of tourist signs, logosfor trade villages and souvenirs related to its tourism. It is also working ona set of criteria to evaluate high-quality tourist spots and tourist areas for2021-2025, and has a plan to upgrade the quality of tourism products andtourist destinations in association with relic sites and craft villages in Hanoi also for the period to 2025.
Recently, the municipal Tourism Department has begun to implement a tourism programme in connection with the B52 Victory Museum. Developing cuisine in line with tourism activities is also a focus of work of the department.
Regarding tourism promotion and advertisement, the municipaltourism industry has advised municipal authorities to issue a plan topopularise and promote the capital’s tourist destinations in 2021, whilecoordinating with the Vietnam Television and the Hanoi Television to make andbroadcast reportage and documentaries popularizing the image of Hanoi’stourism and culture, and at the same time promoting its tourism image on LEDscreens at Noi Bai International Airport, Hoan Kiem Lake and Ly Thai ToMonument.
Regarding the cooperation programme with US-based TV channel CNNin 2021, the department is negotiating on terms of the cooperation, to advise the municipalPeople's Committee to sign an additional annex to the Memorandum ofUnderstanding for cooperation during 2019-2024 and in 2021. It has alsocoordinated with CNN to select products suitable to the communicationstrategy as well as major events of Vietnam and Hanoi this year.
The municipal tourism sector has designed three growth scenariosfor the sector in 2021. In the best scenario, an early recovery will allow Hanoi towelcome 15.34 million domestic visitors, double the figure in 2020, and equal to 70 percent of the figure in 2019 before the pandemic. An earlyrecovery would mean the normal operation of services and accommodationfacilities, with average occupancy exceeding 45 percent.
The sector has also set an overall target of catering tobetween 13.16 and 19.4 million tourists, including 10.96-15.34 million domesticvisitors, for this year.
Phung Quang Thang, Director of Hanoi Tourist and Presidentof the Hanoi Travel Association said that travel businesses should review andrestructure their products to create more attractive tours.
Thang said that the firms should work more closely withlocal authorised agencies to focus on developing night tourism, citingstatistics showing that 70 percent of people engaging in night tourismactivities enjoy food, 20 percent often drink and 10 percent engage in entertainmentactivities. In his opinion, with its advantages in night tourism such as thetwo pedestrian areas of the Old Quarter around Hoan Kiem Lake and Trinh CongSon Street near West Lake, Hanoi’s culinary tourism will help travel firmsthrive.
The city attracted some 8.65 million holidaymakers in 2020,equivalent to 30 percent as compared with 2019, of whom foreign arrivals wereestimated at 1.11 million, equivalent to 15.8 percent from last year./.
VNA
