Ta Hien Street in Hanoi is returning to its well-known hustle and bustle after two years of COVID-19 restrictions. (Photo: VNA)Astourism activities resume, 'Hanoi Tourism 2022' was launched overthe weekend at Ly Thai To Square. With the theme 'Get on Hanoi 2022', theevent took place from March 25 to 27 with a series of activities towelcome tourists back to the capital.
Oneof the event highlights was a hot air balloons festival at Long Bienlongan garden, the area along the Red River and the foot of Vinh Tuy Bridge inLong Bien district.
Atotal of 22 colourful hot air balloons, including 18 level-one balloons of10-metre high and four level-seven of 22-metre high, flew above the Hanoiskyline.
Meanwhilein Ba Vi district on the outskirts of Hanoi, a local tourism campaign will belaunched on April 16. With the theme 'Ba Vi Tourism - Green and safeexperience', the event will focus on eco-tourism, leisure travel, and spiritualculture for this upcoming summer.
Accordingto Dang Huong Giang, Director of Hanoi’s Department of Tourism, the capitalcity has attracted more than 2.8 million local tourists in the first quarter of2022, equivalent to a 45 percent increase compared to the same period lastyear.
Thisis the basis on which events and products stimulating demand will be created torevive the tourism industry, while also ensuring safe adaptation and flexible,effective control of COVID-19, she added.
HoChi Minh City has also been putting in the effort and scaling upinter-provincial and inter-regional partnerships with more than 40 cities andprovinces, which are in the Mekong Delta, the Northwestern, Central, Southeastregions and the Central Highlands.
BuiThi Ngoc Hieu, Deputy Director of HCM City’s Department of Tourism said:"With these partnerships, HCM city plans to promote and make exchangesbetween the local tourism ecosystems to renew programmes and create uniqueproducts, while also focusing on human resources training.
"Expandingpartnerships to other regions across the country will help bring tourists tothese provinces, while also welcoming tourists in provinces to HCM City.Therefore, the tourism sector and ecosystems will flourish even more."
Thenorthern province of Quang Ninh has also been focusing on tourism partnerships,reopening programmes, stimulating policies, support for businesses, andtraining human resources for the tourism sector.
Theprovince's goal is to welcome 10 million visitors in 2022, of which 1.5 millionare international tourists. The revenue from tourism is expected to be 21trillion VND (918 million USD).
Thecentral city of Da Nang has also followed the guidelines of the Ministry ofCulture, Sports and Tourism to give its tourism industry a boost while alsoensuring safety measures against COVID-19.
OnMarch 27, the city welcomed the first international flights from Singapore andBangkok.
NguyenXuan Binh, Deputy Director of Da Nang’s Department of Tourism said: “Thissummer, Da Nang will focus on local tourists, and especially the partnershipswith provinces in the central region to create new tourism products, whichcombine marine tourism with cultural and eco-tourism.”
Withtheir campaign of developing Thanh Hoa province into a safe, friendly, attractivedestination, the local authorities have set up the goal of welcoming more than10 million tourists in 2022, of which 440,000 are from overseas. The total revenueis expected to be nearly 18 trillion VND (787 million USD).
Aspart of the inter-provincial partnership with HCM City, the southern provinceof Bac Lieu recently held an agreement signing ceremony between the city and 13localities of the Mekong Delta, alongside its tourism campaign launch.
Onthe national scale, the Vietnam Tourism Association has teamed up with the VietnamNational Administration of Tourism (VNAT) to host Vietnam International TravelMart (VITM) 2022, with numerous promotions and activities to offer.
Takingplace from March 31 to April 3, the event will welcome travel businesses andtourism management agencies from 52 cities and provinces across Vietnam, aswell as from six other countries and territories.
Fortravel agencies, this period of time is also an opportunity for them to revisetheir products and human resources in preparation for internationaltourists.
LeNguyen Long, director of Asia Plus Tours said: “The reopening of tourism andhealth, visa requirements receives generally positive responses from ourcustomers and partners.”
“Itis expected that the first groups of tourists will arrive in June, and thenumber of customers will stabilise by the end of the year.”
Inthe near future, these agencies will focus on the summer vacation with localtourists, especially for the holiday breaks in April and May.International travel season will begin from September onwards.
PhungQuang Thang, Director of Hanoitourist said: “This sort of rotation will easethe load for the tourism industry when human resources remain insufficient.
“Thereforein this period, in addition to reviewing the infrastructure, businesses alsohope that the State and local government will provide support in terms of stafftraining for the sector.”
NguyenThi Le Huong, Deputy Director of Vietravel, also added that now is the time forgovernment agencies to coordinate with all stakeholders in the industry. Theobjective is to launch a communication campaign with a coherent message both inthe country and abroad.
VNATGeneral Director Nguyen Trung Khanh said: “Domestic travel now no longer hasany restrictions. Despite the outbreak, there is still a large number of localtourists, which proves that safe travel activities have been going in the rightdirection, and that we are ready for tourism reopening.
“Vietnamhas set the goal to welcome 60 million local and 5 million internationaltourists in 2022, which is completely feasible.”
Inthe immediate future, the administration will continue its campaign “Live fullyin Vietnam”, which is being deployed across the country’s tourism website andmedia channels.
Alongsidehuman resources development, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism isalso looking into improving technology applications for tourists, businessesand localities./.
