Nation enjoys tourism upturn

The tourism industry had "erupted" this month, said Nguyen Van Tuan, director of the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism yesterday in Ha Noi.
Tuan told the conference of national strategic plan for tourism development that nearly 390,000 international tourists visited Viet Nam in November, an increase of 70 per cent from last month.
He said the increase resulted from the economic recovery and the success of promotion campaigns for the country’s tourism in other countries such as China and Japan. The administration would open the biggest ever promotion campaign in France in mid December, he added.
According to administration data, in the first six months of this year, the number of international tourists decreased nearly 20 per cent compared with the same term last year.
With the increase this month, the gap was now 12 per cent, Tuan said "It is a good sign," adding that since the start of this year, 3.4 million international tourists visited Viet Nam and that they might have a further 400,000 tourists next month.
The director said this time of the year was the tourism season so the number of bookings at hotels in the central and the south of Viet Nam was high.
In further plans to boost the promotion, Tuan said "We have VND40 billion (US$2.2 million) for boosting the tourism industry next year".
The director emphasised that the campaign "Impression of Viet Nam" launched in early 2009 had gained good results by increasing the number of domestic tourists from 20.8 million last year to an estimated 25 million people this year.
Tuan said thanks to the increase of 17 per cent from domestic visitors, the industry’s turnover grew 8-10 per cent over last year.
"It also reflects a good result from the Government’s stimulus package," said Tuan.
He said that though the administration attracted domestic visitors with its tourism stimulus package, they did not discourage or prevent Vietnamese people travelling abroad as "it is a legitimate desire of the people."
Tuan said they had co-operated closely with the tourism sectors in other countries to give Vietnamese people the best and the safest conditions when travelling outside Viet Nam.
Next year, when it is time for Ha Noi to celebrate its 1,000th anniversary of ancient Thang Long and national tourism year in the capital, the administration predicts to have 4.5-4.8 million international tourists.
The administration plans to continue its campaign of promotion for local tourism as well as in the markets with signs of fast economic recovery such as China, Northeast Asia, ASEAN, Northwest Europe and North America.
Under the strategic plan for tourism development by 2020 and towards 2030, Viet Nam would attract from 7 to 8 million international tourists and 35 million local visitors each year by 2015 and 11-12 million international and 45-48 million local tourists by 2020.
In the plan, the tourism industry expected to reach a turnover of ($10-11 billion by 2015, $18-19 billion by 2020, and about $38 billion by 2030.