Hue Offers Unique Vision of Vietnam

Picturesque landscapes and longstanding, rich cultures have been playing a very important role in tourism development in Thua Thien Hue Province where the old capital of Hue is located.
Tourism development is important to make Thua Thien Hue and Vietnam as a whole an attractive destination for foreign visitors. A National Tourism Year is to take place in Thua Thien Hue and northern and south central provinces next year. The Vietnam Economic News' Mien Trung spoke with Dr. Phan Tien Dung, the director of the Thua Thien Hue Province Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to learn about this event and tourism development in the province.
What does Thua Thien Hue do, as the host of the 2012 National Tourism Year, to make Thua Thien Hue in particular and the central region in general an ideal destination for visitors?
The central region is renowned for its tangible and intangible cultural and historical values that have been recognized as world heritages. They include the old capital of Hue in Thua Thien Hue Province, the old town of Hoi An and My Son Holy Land in Quang Nam Province, the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in Quang Binh Province, the Court Music (locally known as nha nhac cung dinh) of Hue, the cultural space of gong in Tay Nguyen (the Central Highlands), nice beaches through out the central region, and more. These tangible and intangible values have been greatly assisting tourism to develop and become a spearhead industry in the region.
Tourism and services' contribution to Thua Thien Hue's gross national product (GNP) has increased from 36 percent in 1999 to 44 percent. With its full awareness of the importance of provincial localities' cooperation in development promotion and benefiting from assistance from the Government, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and other ministries and organizations, Thua Thien Hue has been doing a good job developing tourism through investment promotion, information/experience exchange, and unique, attractive tourist offering development and provision. Creating competitive, attractive tourist offerings through making use of the local region's values has helped Thua Thien Hue reach high tourism achievements and contribute to making Vietnam become an attractive, safe and friendly destination for visitors.
However, the cooperation in tourism development between localities in the central region remains less effective. Through the 2012 National Tourism Year, Thua Thien Hue is expected to work with northern central provinces and other localities nationwide to make it become an ideal destination for visitors. Things to be done include information and management experience exchange, promoting cooperation in tourism advertising, workforce development experience exchange, material facility construction, paving the way for tourism businesses to sign contracts to provide travel, accommodation and transport services and enter joint ventures with partners to develop entertainment centers to better serve visitors, assisting tourism companies to open representative offices and branches in different localities, holding international cultural and sports events to introduce local cultural values, and increasing visitor's comfort to make guests stay longer.
What will the 2012 National Tourism Year have?
The 2012 National Tourism Year will have a range of cultural, sports and tourism activities. It is to take place in Thua Thien Hue Province and northern and southern central provinces. The event will introduce Vietnamese tourist strengths including cultural heritages that are so important for forming and developing unique tourist offerings. Thua Thien Hue is expected to see tourism and services accounting for 49-50 percent of its GNP in 2015.
Through those activities, we will introduce visitors worldwide about values and tourist offerings associated with Vietnam's old capitals among which Hue is an outstanding representative. They are nationally and globally known products including those in which Thua Thien Hue is strong, such as beaches, lagoons, spiritual tourism and cultures and notable festivals that have been all well preserved in Hue.
How does Thua Thien Hue prepare for introducing its tourist offerings during the 2012 National Tourism Year and the 2012 Hue Festival?
Advertising is important to make the National Tourism Year a success. This event and the 2012 Hue Festival are good opportunities for us to introduce visitors worldwide about our tourist offerings. We have had detailed plans, some major ones of which include:
* Announcing the National Tourism Year and opening related press conferences in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City;
* Thua Thien Hue will participate in the JATA Tourism Forum & Travel Showcase in Japan together with Quang Nam and the city of Da Nang and an international tourist fair in London (UK) to introduce its specific tourist offerings and preparations for the National Tourism Year. We are producing a number of publications related to the National Tourism Year for sales in the above-mentioned two events.
* The province will keep and increase contact with traditional customers and potential markets in the region while attracting more visitors who use overland tours along the trans-Asia route. The provincial culture, sports and tourism sector is working with other sectors to open national and international seminars to advertise the National Tourism Year as a special, unique image of Southeast Asia. It is also producing documentary films to introduce visitors about central Vietnam including Thua Thien Hue as a province in which 2012 National Tourism Year activities are to take place.