Regional connectivity will allow Central and Central Highlandlocalities to fully tap their tourism potential and createhighly-attractive tourism products, said Deputy Prime Minister Vu DucDam at his working session with local officials on July 17.
At the meeting in central Ninh Thuan province, Dam stressed thatVietnam has yet to take full advantage of its great tourism potential asinvestment in this sector is not considered a core task.
He asked the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to design aspecific, long-term strategy for the tourism industry, requiring it topromote advantages held by each locality and each region.
The ministry was also urged to work closely with the Vietnam Tourism Association in the work.
During the working session, Vice Chairwoman of the Central Highlandsprovince of Dak Nong Nguyen Thi Ngoc Le proposed that the Government paymore attention to developing tourism in mountainous provinces.
Meanwhile, Le Huu Minh, deputy head of central Thua Thien-Hueprovince’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism suggested thatlocalities holding similar tourism advantages and products should worktogether to gain higher effectiveness.
According toHead of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Nguyen Van Tuan,the sector served 7.7 million foreign tourists and nearly 33 milliondomestic visitors, earning 200 trillion VND (9.4 billion USD) in revenuelast year.
In the first half of 2014, the number offoreign visitors to Vietnam hit nearly 4.3 million, while the number ofdomestic holiday-makers was 23.4 million. The sector pocketed 125trillion VND (5.87 billion USD) in revenue, a year-on-year increase of22.5 percent.-VNA