The Vietnamese tourism industry managed to achieve a lot of successes in the past tough year. This year, the sector targets to attract 8 million international and 40 million domestic tourists, and earn gross revenue of VND220 trillion (US$10 billion).
According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), international visitor arrivals to Vietnam were estimated at 7.57 million in 2013, up 10.6 percent year on year. China took the lead with 1.9 million visitors to Vietnam, up 33.5 percent year on year. Other tourism markets of Vietnam include South Korea (6.8 percent), Japan (4.8 percent), Cambodia (3.1 percent), Malaysia (13.5 percent), Australia (10.3 percent), Russian (71.1 percent) and Thailand (19.1 percent).
The tourism industry aims at 12 million international arrivals and revenue of US$15.9 billion in 2020. The tourism industry’s contribution share in the country’s GDP will reach 5.2 percent in 2015 and 6 percent in 2020.
Nguyen Van Tuan, General Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), said, Vietnam will shift focus from extensive development to intensive development, with modernity, quality, efficiency, prestige and competitiveness in the coming period.
Localities will use their characteristic resources and conditions to tap tourism potential with effective solutions. He said VNAT saw that some localities started to have breakthroughs and clear development orientations: Focusing on high-quality products and services, prolonging the visit duration of tourists, and increasing sources of income. Currently, Vietnam has many professional tourist attractions with increasing tourism revenue, including Nha Trang, Hoi An, Phan Thiet and Da Nang.
Unique and diverse cultural elements, plus the hospitality of people and beauty of landscapes, have created locally characteristic tourism products which are very attractive to foreign tourists, Tuan added.
He also cited two very important factors to draw tourism investors to Vietnam. Firstly, it is necessary to show investors that Vietnam is a promising destination for foreign tourists in the future, and the second factor is favourable investment policies and environment. Besides, Vietnam needs to focus on promoting and advertising tourism on mass media.
Thanh Nga
Đăng ký: VietNam News
