Promoting Tourism Strength

Khanh Hoa’s outlook on tourism development in coming time is to promote international tourism, which is considered the motive for national tourism and services’ development; gradually build up tourism to become a “clean industry” in terms of technical material environment, spiritual and cultural environment and national cultural preservation and promotion, environmental protection, playing the role of tourism centre in South Central Coast Sub-region and the whole country.

 

According to Khanh Hoa Department of Culture, Sports & Tourism, in first 9 months of 2011, the total number of tourists coming to the province was 1.65 million, meeting 76.92 percent of the year’s plan, up by 2.28 percent year on year, in which international tourists accounted for 301.2 million, 66.95 percent of the plan, up by 10.41 percent; tourism turnover was estimated VND 1,694 billion, 82.65 percent of the plan, up by 22.69 percent.

 

The industry has boosted tourism promotion and communication activities to attract tourists such as: prepared materials to introduce Khanh Hoa tourism in Moscow International Travel and Tourism (MITT) 2011 in Russia, and taking part in a promotional seminar on Central destinations to markets of Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong in Da Nang.

 

Paying close attention to investment into tourism infrastructure, Khanh Hoa has basically fulfilled the needs of tourists coming to visit, work and relax in Khanh Hoa, in which the notable item is technical infrastructure investment. Mr Truong Dang Tuyen, Director of Khanh Hoa Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism, said that for the past years, provincial technical infrastructure has seen rapid development in quality. As of June 2011, total number of provincial accommodations was 480 with 11,765 rooms, in which 32 hotels were ranked 3 to 5 stars. Besides, there have been varied and plentiful service facilities, entertainment centres, tourism products and forms.

Attention has also been paid to transportation means and networks: the province has completed and put into operation Cam Ranh Airport’s passenger concourse, which is still under improvement to the airport ranked 4E, planned construction of Nha Trang Harbour into a tourism harbour cum internationally ranked service centre, and put the whole route from Nha Trang to Da Lat into use, which helped to reduce the distance between Nha Trang and Da Lat to only 130 kilometres.

 

Khanh Hoa has focused on preservation activities of local visits and relics. Relic localization in Khanh Hoa has been smooth for years; ranked relics have all been well-protected by local authorities, agencies and residents. According to Mr Tuyen, preservation activities in Khanh Hoa were all conducted under the form of socialization. As Khanh Hoa is a national tourism and cultural centre, agencies and departments have always concentrated and coordinated with each other to exploit cultural values to serve tourism activities.

 

Despite being a famous tourism destination in Vietnam, Nha Trang and Khanh Hoa has only been a dynamic economy for the past ten years since the tourism development programme was conducted in 2001. While in 2000, the province only greeted about 400,000 tourists, including 120,000 international ones and gained turnover of VND 200 billion, in 2010, the number of tourists increased to 1,840, including 390,000 international ones and tourism turnover reached 1,880 billion, increasing by 9.4 times against 2000.

 

Mr Tuyen said that in the coming time, Khanh Hoa tourism will develop in a modern direction with quality, focus and strong brand building; at the same time, it will reasonably exploit resources, engage environmental protection to preserve local and ethnic cultural values with a focus on community tourism promotion and poverty alleviation. By 2015, Khanh Hoa targets to receive 3 million tourists, including 750,000 international ones, gain turnover of VND3,500 billion and make tourism the provincial spearhead industry.

 

The province will mainly promote major tourism products and forms: island and sea tourism, mountain eco-tourism, cultural tourism, work and relative visiting tourism, MICE tourism, ship tourism, and countryside tourism. Besides, the province will also promote national and international cooperation, and gradually form sea tourism complexes of modern, international standard which are able to compete with major neighbouring sea tourism centres, in the 3 provincial core development areas of Nha Trang city, Northern Cam Ranh and Van Phong Economic Park.