Hanoi aims to lure more visitors

Hanoi capital has turned 1,000 years old with more than 5,100 long-term historical relics, 700 landscapes at national level, 1,300 traditional craft villages. The city has been voted as one of the five most attractive cities for tourism in Asia by Travel and Leisure magazine since 2002, is considered an ideal destination of domestic and int'l visitors.
Mr. Mai Tien Dung Vice Director of the municipal Culture, Sports and Tourism Department said at a workshop on "Tourism Investment Promotion in Ha Noi", the capital should tap into its natural resources and cultural and historical heritage, and diversify its unique tourism products and services.
At present, the city had improved infrastructure and services for tourism development including accommodation, restaurants, shopping centres, entertainment areas and new tourist products.
The number of accommodation facilities, restaurants, bars and cafes in the city has also mushroomed with 639 hotels including 38 hotels 3, 4 and 5-star with 5,000 int'l standard rooms, 10 large trade centres, 84 supermarkets, 410 markets and several hundred shops that sell a diverse range of goods...It will be a good advantage to attract investors into tourism as well as other fields.
The number of foreign visitors to Hanoi in 2010 is estimated at 1.2 million, up 18.42 percent against 2009, while the number of domestic tourists to the city is expected to increase by 15.22 percent to 10.6 million. And most tourists were from mainland China, South Korea, the US, Japan and European countries. The figure was given at a revision conference by the Hanoi Municipal Department for Culture, Sports and Tourism on December 23.
Nguyen Thanh Tinh, Vice Director of the municipal Planning and Investment Department, said the city had a large market with a population of 6.45 million people.
"It has the investment advantage of a young and abundant labour force. 53 per cent of workers in the tourism sector are trained and labour costs are low," Tinh said.
Tourism businesses agreed that Ha Noi had a lot of potential, but lacked a complete tourism package.
Doan Thi Thanh Tra, head of the Sai Gon Tourist Company's marketing department, said the city had not offered products customers were interested in although Ha Noi had the advantage of being able to link tourism sites with neighbouring provinces as well as unique craft villages and pagodas.
Mr. Dung added the city should promote investment in infrastructure and building unique and attractive tourism services as well as accelerate tourism planning by 2020 with a vision to 2050 with details of tourism sites.
In addition, tourism development and environmental protection should always come together in combination with the improvement of human resources in the sector.
Head representative of the Indian Clark Group Ravi Kumar said the country should open direct flights between India and Viet Nam to promote investment in the two countries' tourism industries.
"India has been paying attention to new tourism destinations in Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia," Dung said.
The municipal Culture, Sports and Tourism Department is going to focus on developing ecological tours using green travel with 12 electric cars in the Old Quarter and around Hoan Kiem Lake. Furthermore, tours on the Red River, ecotourism in Ba Vi and community-based tours will also be enhanced.
However, to meet the target set for tourism development in future, Hanoi should focus more attention on managing tourist activities; promoting advertisement, both domestically and overseas; and improving staff training and tourism inspection.
Compiled by Thanh Pham (TITC)