Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the meeting. (Photo: VNA)The country's tourism sector should develop stronglywith “special products, professional services and clean environment” to makeVietnam a safe, friendly destination, he said.
The leader reiterated the target of welcoming from47-50 million international visitors and raising the sector’s GDP contributionsto about 14-15%, as set at the 13th National Party Congress.
He emphasised favourable conditions for the sectorto growth further, including one world wonder, 18 world heritages and more than41,000 tourist sites, among others, saying tourism development is the responsibilityof the entire political system, all agencies and the whole society.
Domestic tourism should be placed in the country's general socio-economicdevelopment as a spearhead economic sector and should be linked with regional andworld tourism, with international standards, he noted.
Regarding key tasks in the time ahead, PM Chinh askedministries, agencies and localities to seriously implement viewpoints andguidelines of the Party, laws and policies of the State on tourism, while steppingup tourism restructuring.
He urged reviewing, amending and supplementingrelevant mechanisms, policies and regulations, increasing investment andmobilising more resources for the sector, including those from the private sector,helping travel firms and households access loans, enhancing digitaltransformation, and building and developing a smart tourism ecosystem inVietnam.
The PM stressed the need to facilitate theopening of air routes and strengthen international cooperation, especially withbig, multi-national groups and corporations, in this field.
He assigned the Ministry of Culture, Sports andTourism to continue implementing the project on tourism restructuring towardsthe status of a spearhead economic sector, effectively utilise big sources ofholidaymakers and promote products in which Vietnam has strengths like culturaltourism, meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) tourism,medical tourism and agriculture-based tourism, among others.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and representativediplomatic offices abroad were asked to coordinate with other ministries andagencies in the communication work, and in implementing visa and immigration policiesfor international visitors.
PM Chinh suggested the Ministry of Industry and Tradeintegrate tourism into trade promotion programmes both at home and abroad, andthe Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development promote tourism based onagriculture, rural areas and farmers.
The government leader also gave tasks to People’s Committeesof cities and provinces, and travel associationsand firms.
Participants at the conference looked into opportunities and challengesto the tourism industry, and sought solutions to them, proposing thatinternational travel companies should be encouraged to invest and operate inVietnam.
Statistics by the Ministry of Culture, Sports andTourism showed that the number of international visitors to Vietnam jumped to18 million in 2019 from only 7.9 million in 2015.
Vietnam's average annual tourism growth of 22.7% is amongthe highest in the world, according to the World Travel Organisation.
The country’s tourism has moved up eight places onthe 2021 Tourism and Travel Development Index (TTDI) to the 52nd position as comparedwith that in 2019, said the World Economic Forum (WEF) Report.
With six out of the 17 pillar indexes ranked amongthe top in the world, Vietnam's tourism ranks among the top three fastestgrowing countries.
Since the border reopening on March 15, 2022, thesector has been recovering, especially domestic tourism.
Last year, the country served 101.3 million domesticvisitors and 3.5 million foreign tourists, and raked in 495 trillion VND fromthe industry, up more than 23% from the set target, and equivalent to 66% ofthe 2019 figure./.
VNA
