Hanoi Offering More Cultural Products to Attract Int’l Tourists

10:27:31 AM | 8/19/2022

To attract tourists, especially international visitors, Director of the Hanoi Department of Tourism Dang Huong Giang said that Hanoi has been and will continue to offer new, attractive and unique products, focusing on developing cultural tourism products such as sports tourism, agri-tourism, discovery tourism and MICE tourism. With respect to this issue, Vietnam Business Forum had an interview with Ms. Dang Huong Giang, Director of the Hanoi Department of Tourism. Thu Huyen reports.

In the first seven months of 2022, the total number of tourist arrivals to Hanoi reached 10.62 million. How have you achieved such a good result?

This result comes from many factors. First of all, the socio-economic activities of the whole country and Hanoi have returned to normal with higher demand for travel.

In that context, we have also quickly and proactively restructured tourism products, and launched new products to attract tourists such as cultural tourism and holiday tourism, including walking tours "French architecture in the heart of Hanoi"; city tours by tram; Hanoi discovery by bicycle "VGreen bike tour", Hoa Lo night tour "Sacred night shining with Vietnamese spirit", Night tour "Decoding Thang Long Imperial Citadel".

Many events and programs have been organized and attracted a large number of tourists such as the Hanoi Tourism Program to welcome 2022; the Hanoi Tourism Gift Festival in 2022; VITM International Travel Fair in 2022; the Opening of the Son Tay-Doai Tourism Year and the opening of the pedestrian street of Son Tay Citadel; announcement of Phu Dong tourist spot, Gia Lam district; Hanoi Tourism Festival in 2022; Food and Tourism Festival of Hanoi Craft Villages; the art and street food space - Trinh Cong Son pedestrian street.

Hanoi has been highly appreciated by prestigious travel websites and magazines in 2022, such as TripAdvisor, which ranked Hanoi city 13th in the list of Top 25 Most Popular Destinations in Asia 2022; German travel news site Travelbook.de, which rated Hanoi as one of the most favorite destinations in Southeast Asia; Google Destination Insights, which ranked Hanoi as one of the cities most searched for by international visitors.

Hanoi only welcomed about 425,000 foreign tourists in seven months. What solutions will you adopt to attract more international tourists?

Some potential markets such as China, Japan, Taiwan and Russia are still closed, so in the immediate future, we are targeting visitors from open markets such as Asian countries, Korea, Europe, Australia, and the U.S. To achieve the goal of attracting international tourists, we are implementing many solutions synchronously.

We will propose the competent authorities increase the number of countries exempted from visas into Vietnam, especially potential markets, increase the length of stay for international visitors, and implement a convenient and easy electronic visa application process.

We will also implement tourism promotion plans and programs in potential and key tourism markets; build the image of Vietnam's tourism and the capital of Hanoi as a safe destination, with a professional and modern tourism environment.

We will also focus on building experiential tourism products that combine culture, agricultural tourism, night tourism, sports tourism, and MICE tourism.

We will also strengthen digital transformation, promote tourism in the digital space environment, and build online tourism products.

We will improve the quality of tourism human resources to have high-quality human resources to meet the international standards services and serve international economic integration.

In the first seven months of 2022, the total number of tourist arrivals to Hanoi reached 10.62 million, an increase of 3.6 times over the same period last year. Domestic tourists grew strongly, estimated at 10.2 million arrivals, up 3.5 times over the same period last year. The number of international tourists has started to grow well month by month, especially those from Southeast Asian countries on the occasion of the 31st SEA Games. The total revenue from tourism was estimated at VND31.9 trillion, an increase of 3.9 times over the same period in 2021.

What about tours specially designed for international tourists?

Hanoi Department of Tourism as well as Hanoi travel agencies have prepared a series of unique and attractive tours to serve international tourists. Some typical tours include City tours by double-decker; Hoan Kiem tours by electric car; cyclo tours; and tours by antique motorbikes and antique cars.

Other tours for international visitors include tours to Uncle Ho's Mausoleum, Temple of Literature, Thang Long Imperial Citadel, Hoa Lo Prison, National Museum of History, Museum of Ethnology, Bat Trang Ceramic Village, Van Phuc Silk Village, Hoan Kiem Lake, the Old Quarter area, the ancient village in Duong Lam, Ba Vi area, and Huong Pagoda.

In the coming time, we will continue to offer new, unique and more attractive products, focusing on cultural tourism products which are considered as the main products, and developing new tourism products such as sports, agricultural, experience-discovery tourism, and MICE tourism.

Thank you very much!

By Vietnam Business Forum