Hoi An set to become eco-cultural-tourism city

A corner of Hoi An ancient town (Photo: VietnamPlus)

Quang Nam (VNA) – The central province of Quang Nam targets building Hoi An city into its development locomotive and a world-class tourism hub of the country by 2030.

It was revealed at a conference held by the standing board of the provincial Party Committee on September 6 to build Hoi An into an ecological-cultural and tourism city.

Between now and 2025, Hoi An will have the same criteria for a grade II city with a minimum population of 200,000, at least 65% of workers in non-agriculture, and meet requirements for landscaping, urban and technical infrastructure.

The city will basically complete the construction of a smart urban area that synchronously connects with the province’s smart urban area and the country's smart urban area network, and join the global network of creative cities.

Nguyen Thi Thu Lan, head of the provincial Commission for Information and Education, said in order to make Hoi An an eco-cultural-tourism city, it is necessary to issue a resolution on the construction and development of Hoi An city with the direction to preserve and promote the values of local culture and people.

Speaking at the event, Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Phan Viet Cuong asked Hoi An authorities in collaboration with the province’s relevant agencies to consult planning, architecture and culture experts, thus ensuring its harmonious development without disrupting the ancient town’s landscape.

Hoi An needs to preserve its unique and diverse water surface space, protect and enhance the landscape value of rivers, estuaries, coasts and islands, preserve and develop islets on Thu Bon river and rural areas towards becoming the city's landscape heritage, he said.

The city needs to complete criteria to recognise Cu Lao Cham-Hoi An World Biosphere Reserve as a national nature reserve.

At the same time, he urged protecting and restoring mangrove forest ecosystem and riverside vegetation from the impacts of climate change, enhancing biodiversity and preventing coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion while dealing with environment pollution, especially from aquaculture.

By 2025, Hoi An will completely addressenvironment pollution, focus on preserving existing natural values and improving artificial values via the completion of management frameworks.

By 2030, the city will fundamentally solve the problems of wastewater and solid waste treatment, and well control environment quality.

Quang Nam has set waterway tourism as a new direction for Hoi An. Further attention will be paid to ecological, sea and island, experience, spiritual, religious and cuisine tourism.

Hoi An, the sole representative of Vietnam, is ranked 20th among the 25 best cities of the world in 2022, as voted by readers of Travel + Leisure US travel magazine.

Visitors in Hoi An (Photo: VietnamPlus)

Along the banks of the romantic Hoai River and 30km from Da Nang city, Hoi An ancient town is a famous destination and has attracted domestic and foreign tourists for many years. Through ups and downs in history, the flow of time has covered Hoi An with a peaceful and contemplative beauty.

As the sole representative of Vietnam, Hoi An recently ranked 20^th among the 25 best cities of the world in 2022, as voted by readers of the US’s Travel + Leisure magazine.

Readers ranked the cities based on factors such as the quality of hotels and restaurants, cultural heritage, attractions, cuisine, and COVID-19 protocols.

Hoi Anused to be a busy international commercial port from the 16^th to 19^th  centuries, attracting merchant ships from China and Japan. It is a World Heritage Site recognized by UNESCO.

It also made its way into a list of the world’s most colourful places compiled by luxury tour operator Unforgettable Croatia based on Tripadvisor reviews.

With 1,105 reviews commenting on its colors, Hoi An ranked third on the list after Nyhavn in Denmark with 2,755 reviews and Chihuly Garden and Glass in the US  with 1287 reviews, according to data collected last July by the London-based tour operator.

"The small town is renowned for its mix of Japanese, Chinese and French influences and streets lit with lanterns of all shapes, sizes and, more importantly, colors," it noted.

"In the evenings the lights from the yellow painted buildings and orange sun reflect off the water in a captivating way."

Colourful floating lanterns are also a distinct feature of Hoi An, which hosts the lantern festival on the 14th day of each lunar month, when all electric lights of the town are switched off./.