The National Tourism Year Red River Delta - Haiphong 2013, under the theme "Red River Civilization", will include cultural events, art, sports, tourism, trade fairs and seminars. Haiphong will be the centre of activities. On this occasion, the Vietnam Business Forum had an interview with Mr Doan Duy Linh, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Haiphong on the details around this big event. Quang Sang reports.
Looking towards the National Tourism Year Red River Delta - Haiphong 2013, could you please tell us briefly about the results of Haiphong tourism in 2012?
With the efforts of the city in investment and upgrading infrastructure for tourism and constantly having creative and innovative programs and tourism products with unique and attractive features, in the first 10 months of 2012, Haiphong tourism industry has achieved encouraging results. Specifically:
It is estimated that in the first 10 months of 2012, total passenger numbers reached 3,925,787, increasing by 7.04 percent over the same period in 2011, gaining 87.24 percent compared to the plan in 2012, in which foreign visitors are 470,558, increasing by 0.84 percent over the same period last year. Revenue reached VND 1,537.657 billion, increasing 6.09 times over the same period in 2011, gaining 80.93 percent of the 2012 plan. Haiphong has welcomed 04 cruise ships to the city’s port carrying 786 tourists, most of them from the US, Germany, France, UK, Australia, and Canada.
Regarding the tourism industry, by the end of October 2012, in the province of Haiphong city there were 315 tourist accommodation establishments with 7,724 rooms, including 183 'star-rated' tourist accommodation establishments, with 5,380 rooms.
The city has invested in upgrading facilities, equipment and professional service for the National Tourism Year Red River Delta - Haiphong 2013; coordinated with Health Communication and Education Centre - Health Department to successfully organize the conference "Building Haiphong – a No Tobacco City" and held 02 training management and the tourism business classes for a number of tourism establishments in Cat Ba and 295 Do Son Union; joined the Food Festival - Tourism Week of Ha Long, Quang Ninh 2012 and Culinary Festival of the middle region - Hue 2012 and was given the certificate for active unit and Certificate of Commendation for excellent unit by the organizers.
In planning, investment and promotion for tourism development cooperation, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism actively advised the City People's Committee to build a number of proposals and projects: Proposal to UNESCO to recognize Cat Ba Island as a world natural heritage; development planning for sustainable tourism in Cat Ba Island; and coordinating with television stations to broadcast the National Tourism Year Red River Delta -Haiphong 2013.
How will the promotion of Haiphong tourism be implemented in the future?
Recently, Haiphong city signed an agreement with Bac Hai city on the opening of the sea route Bac Hai- Haiphong; coordinated with other cities and provinces (Hanoi, Da Nang, Hue) to organize and tutor Farmtrip tours, and with tourism companies of South Korea, Macau, Hong Kong to study, work and sign tourism development commitments on tourism in Haiphong, participated in tourism promotion organization of cities in the Asia - Pacific (TPO); economic cooperation forum in Tonkin Gulf, worked with Thailand Tourism Department to open Bangkok-Haiphong flights; initially established relations with Korean Tourism to promote cooperation, cultural exchanges and tourism promotion; announced the brand Biosphere Reserve in Cat Ba Island and gave registration marks on products for businesses.
In the coming time, the city will continue to build the program to promote long-term marine tourism with high quality and large scale, promoting the image of Haiphong sea travel across the country and major international markets (China), potential markets (East Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, North America) and traditional markets (ASEAN, Japan, and Korea, striving to reach the Russian, Eastern European, Northern European, Australian and New Zealand markets.
National Tourism Year 2013 hosted by Haiphong is sticking with the theme of "Red River civilization", which identifies the development of marine tourism as the focus content. Accordingly, a number of programs and special festivals will be widely introduced in "Vietnam Year in Japan", "Vietnam Year in France” and others in the near future. The dossier submitted to UNESCO to recognize Cat Ba Archipelago as a World Heritage Site is one of the strategic solutions in popularization and promotion, and attracting investment which the city is urgently carrying out.
How is the plan to develop high-quality human resources for tourism development in Haiphong applied?
With the goal of building Haiphong as a human resource training centre for tourism, not only for Haiphong tourism but also for other northern provinces, so far the system for tourism professional training has gradually formed from elementary to university education in universities and colleges in the city, providing high-quality human resources for the tourism industry, such as: University of Haiphong, Haiphong People's university, Community College, College of Profession tourism and services, Haiphong Vocational College of Tourism and Services and Promotion Information Centre (under the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism); in which, the Vocational College of Tourism and Services is the facility specializing in training for tourism. The education centres for tourism personnel continue to be upgraded in terms of labour quantity and quality. In addition, every year the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism also organizes training courses to improve management knowledge for tourism officials and business leaders in the city; and train guides and room service, bar and kitchen staff.
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