Tourism is being given priority in investment in order to become a key economy of Lam Dong Province. “So that the tourism sector can gain sustainable and effective development and make larger contribution to the economy, in addition to the assistance from ministries and industries, the tourism sector of Lam Dong has also planned a strategic direction of development,” said Mr Nguyen Van Huong, Director of Lam Dong Provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
How has Lam Dong concentrated on investing in the development of tourism in order to turn it into a key economic sector?
It’s our policy to attract investment to fully promote local tourism potential. According to sectoral planning, a lot of tourism attractions have good potential for investment and exploitation. We identify eco, mountain and MICE tourism to be our strengths. As such, in our policies we focus on attracting big investors to implement projects according to this model.
To this moment, the tourism economy of Lam Dong province has witnessed significant development and tourism products are more and more diversified. Increasing numbers of tourism products and forms have helped to attract increasing numbers of tourists. Local enterprises, organizations and individuals involved in tourism business have become more aware of renovating, improving service quality and establishing better reputation and image to gain tourists’ confidence. The competitiveness of Lam Dong’s tourism has been enhanced and Da Lat – Lam Dong become more widely known among tourists. The average annual growth rate of arrivals nearly reaches 20 percent. The number of tourists to Lam Dong has doubled during the last five years.
Lam Dong now has 737 tourist accommodation establishments with 11,836 rooms, making a full accommodation capacity of 40,000 guests per night. Da Lat city is home to 626 tourist accommodation establishments with a total of 10,215 rooms. Hotel services are improved in terms of both quality and quantity. The whole province has 34 tourist attractions which are invested and exploited for business purpose and 60 other ones, free of charge to tourists.
Investment for development is the most important factor in the integration period. What endeavours have been made to promote and call for investment into tourism sector in order to turn Da Lat- Lam Dong into an exciting and attractive tourist centre?
Being aware of the fact that investment for development is the most critical factor in this period, we are implementing a lot of measures at the same time to attract investment and develop Da Lat – Lam Dong into a real tourist centre. We prioritized preparation of planning and mobilization of investment for highly competitive and attractive tourism resources. The province has also focused on studying and issuing policies in order to create favourable condition for investors to implement and complete their projects in the most effective manner and shortest time.
Promotion and advertising of tourism has been conducted regularly and with emphasis on major areas. The image of Da Lat – Lam Dong’s tourism is polished and our network of connection for tourism development is expanded, which helps to generate certain effectiveness in tourism development task of the locality.
The coming years are regarded as golden opportunities for Vietnam’s tourism. How will Lam Dong grasp its opportunities to become one of the tourism hubs of the region and the nation?
The Government has approved that Lam Dong will host the event of National Tourism Year 2014. This event aims at introducing socio-economic, cultural and tourism potential of the Central Highlands in general and Da Lat – Lam Dong in particular to attract investment and tourists, particularly international tourists.
The tourism year will take place throughout the year, in line with the implementation of socio-economic development programme of the province and aiming at the goal of developing sustainable tourism, focusing on service quality and eco environment. This is an important step for Lam Dong to actively seize the opportunity to become one of tourism hubs in the Central – Central Highlands region and Vietnam as well.
Lam Dong’s tourism sector has planned a strategic direction of development to achieve greater sustainability and effectiveness. Please tell us in detail about this, and the measures being taken to achieve set targets?
The Party Committee of Lam Dong has taken efforts to turn tourism into a key economic sector of the province. As such, we plan many directions and solutions to fulfil the objective. We will well implement the master plan for tourism development until 2020 and develop plans for a number of major areas. The system of tourism resources, infrastructure and technical facilities will be reviewed so as to have timely investment plans and upgrading.
In terms of policy mechanism, we define the tourism sector as the economy prioritized for development in order to become a key economy. We will conduct research and provide consultancy to the province to promulgate special policies on investment attraction, HR development and administrative reforms.
Could you please give further details on the direction of tourism development of the province until 2015?
In this period, we aim at sustainable tourism development with focus on service quality and the environment. We strive to make tourism a key sector. Lam Dong’s tourism sector is expected to welcome 4.5-5 million tourists by 2015, generate VND10,000 billion of turnover from tourism sector and account for over 35 percent of province GDP. Efforts will be made so that there will be 25,000 rooms, more than 120 tourism and entertainment areas developed and 15,000 jobs created
Thank you very much!
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