Hanoi receives 1.7 million foreign visitors in 2010

An estimate of 1.7 million foreign visitors flocked to Hanoi during
the National Tourism Year 2010, representing a year-on-year increase of
62 percent.

The figures were announced by Ngo Thi
Thanh Hang, Vice Chairperson of the Hanoi People’s Committee, at a
ceremony in Hanoi on Jan. 25 to review the implementation of the
National Tourism Year 2010, which highlighted Thang Long-Hanoi and its
1,000 year-old history.

The ceremony, jointly held
by the Hanoi People’s Committee and the municipal Department of Culture,
Sports an Tourism, was attended by Permanent Deputy Prime Minister
Nguyen Sinh Hung and the city’s authorities.

Hanoi
welcomed 10.6 million domestic arrivals last year, up 10 percent
compared with the pervious year. Especially, over 30,000 foreign
visitors and 1.2 million domestic tourists flocked to the city during
the 10-day grand celebration of the 1,000 th anniversary of Thang
Long-Hanoi, Hang said.

According to Hang, the
National Tourism Year 2010, hosted by Hanoi , had received a strong
support from ministries, agencies and the entire people.

It was organised with a wide range of activities to mark Hanoi ’s
millennium anniversary, thus, helping to promote the city’s position and
image to the world, Hang noted.

On the occasion,
the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the municipal People’s
Committee presented certificates of merit to units and individuals who
had greatly contributed to the success of the event.

Deputy PM Hung handed over the host of the National Tourism Year 2011 to the central coastal province of Phu Yen./.

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Travel firms offer Tet tours for tourists

As the Tet (Lunar New Year) Festival is approaching, tourist companies
are eagerly preparing to launch tours to serve not only local
holidaymakers but also tens of thousands of foreign visitors.

Doan
Thi Thanh Tra, Head of the Saigontourist Travel Service Corporation’s
Marketing Department, said that as of January 26 (the 23rd day of the
12th lunar month) the company will begin to receive groups of foreign
tourists who want to experience the Vietnamese people’s biggest
traditional festival.

More than 8,500 visitors have booked tours
to Vietnam for the occasion and this is the 8th consecutive year that
Saigontourist has organised tours to serve holidaymakers from abroad as
well as foreigners who are working and living in the country.

If
booking a tour to Ho Chi Minh City, visitors will have a chance to enjoy
the flowers at the Tao Dan Park and learn about the spiritual lives of
the local people by visiting pagodas, where they can pray for good luck
during the Year of the Cat.

Visitors will have an interesting
experience by going on a sightseeing tour of Cho Lon market by pedicab
or visiting local families, enjoying traditional dishes and receiving
gifts for good luck from the owners.

Meanwhile, tours to the
Mekong Delta offer holidaymakers an opportunity to experience the
typical Tet atmosphere of the local residents, with exciting floating
markets and Don ca tai tu (music of the talented) singing. They can join
in with the hosts to pack banh tet (cylindric glutinous rice cakes) and
banh chung (glutinous rice cake).

In addition, Saigontourist’s
restaurants, hotels and tourist sites have also prepared menus with
typical and traditional dishes to serve domestic and foreign visitors
during the festival.

Other travel firms are planning to launch
their own tours, alongside the traditional ones, to attract tourists
during the holidays.

Duong Mai Lan, from the Vietravel Company’s
Marketing Department, said that most of visitors have chosen the central
ancient town of Hoi An, the central city of Da Nang and the Mekong
Delta as destinations.

Tours in the North will bring
holidaymakers to the capital city of Hanoi, the UNESCO-recognised
natural heritage Ha Long Bay, the northern mountainous town of Sapa, and
the Huong (Perfume) pagoda.

Tourists can travel along the Hong
(Red) river by ship and visit a number of riverside tourist sites such
as Tien Dung-Chu Dong Tu Temple and Bat Trang pottery village.

According
to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), the country
is targeting welcoming 5.3 million foreign visitors and serving 30
million domestic holidaymakers in 2011.

The tourism sector will
strive to earn revenue of more than 110 trillion VND (5.5 billion USD),
equivalent to 4.6 percent of the country’s estimated gross domestic
product (GDP).

To reach these targets, the VNAT has mapped out
plans to attract one million tourists from each of the key markets,
namely Thailand, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Europe./.

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Thai tops foreign visitors to Hue

The number of Thai visitors to the ancient capital city of Hue has
increased from 4.7 percent in 2005 to 24 percent in 2010, ranking first
in the list of foreign arrivals to the city.

As many as 6,000 Thai tourists arrived in Hue in a single day this year.

This is the result of the close cooperation between Vietnam , Laos
and Thailand in improving transport infrastructure, expanding trade
exchanges across the borders and reforming migration procedures to
facilitate tourism services.

Especially, the East-West
Economic Corridor stretching through Myanmar , Thailand and Laos
to Vietnam has opened up a lot of economic cooperation opportunities
for member countries and the East sea bordered region, particularly in
the tourism sector.

As of early December this year,
the central province of Thua Thien-Hue had received 1.36 million
visitors, a year-on-year increase of 11.7 percent, of which the number
of foreign visitors to Hue city increased by 7.9 percent. The
province’s tourism industry earned 774 billion VND, up 20.4 percent as
compared to the same period last year./.

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Tourism industry targets 12mln foreign visitors

The tourism industry plans to earn 8.9 billion USD in 2015 when the
country expects to welcome 12 million foreign visitors and host 28
million domestic travellers, according to a draft on tourism development
from 2010-20.

The industry would earn 15.9 billion USD in revenue in 2020, which would
contribute to 6 percent of GDP, according to the draft.

Nguyen Manh Cuong, deputy head of the Vietnam National Administration
of Tourism, said the development plan was drafted after his
administration extensively surveyed related ministries and sectors.

The draft would be submitted to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung for approval, Cuong said.

In this period, the Vietnamese tourism sector would promote products
rather than images, said the deputy head of the Marketing Department
under the National Administration of Tourism, Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong.

The country's tourism sector has so far created specific tourism products to attract visitors.

Officials are now eyeing Meeting, Incentive, Convention and Exhibition
(MICE) events and health care tourism as potential sectors that might
attract tourists from Southeast and Northeast Asia.

The industry will also need to focus on attracting more tourists from
the EU, North America, Australia and Overseas Vietnamese.

In addition, programmes to study market opportunities in India and the Middle East will also be established.

Recently, the administration kicked off a slogan and symbol contest for the Vietnamese tourism sector.

The first prize is worth 50 million VND (2,500 USD) and the deadline
is December 15. Domestic and foreign companies, organisations and
individuals are able to participate./.

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