The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has forecast that Vietnam will become one of the world’s top ten major tourist destinations in the next ten years.
“Vietnam is home to numerous convergent attractive characters such as ancient architecture, high mountains, beautiful waterfalls, sunny sea beaches and a cluster of wonderful places appealing to tourists worldwide”, the Hong Kong-based Shangbao quoted sources from the international tourism body.
Many large companies and hotel businesses around the world, including Accor, Starwood, Hyatt, Marriot hotel groups, have planned to invest in Vietnam, it said, adding that they have negotiated or signed contracts with Vietnamese partners to build five-star hotels in the country.
Hotel owners have affirmed that Vietnam is a peaceful and safe place where an attractive oriental character remains, according to a recent survey.
According to the WTTC, Vietnam's oriental character will attract tourists in the years to come. In the past, Hong Kong and Singapore were named as the two tourist destinations in terms of attractive oriental character but they now have turned towards western development. Therefore, Vietnam will have a greater opportunity.
In June, WTTC confirmed its reports ranking Vietnam fourth in terms of global tourism development in the next ten years (2005-2014) with an annual growth rate of 8.3 per cent followed by Montenegro, China and India.
In the first ten months of this year, Vietnam welcomed almost 2.85 million foreign visitors, up 20.3 per cent on-year.
Vietnam hopes to attract 3.5 million international arrivals and 15 million domestic holidaymakers in 2005, earning VND30 trillion (US$1.91 billion) from tourism services, and posting respective year-on-year increases between 10-15 per cent.
By 2010, the figures are expected at six million, 23 million and around US$4.4 billion, correspondingly.
The People, Young People
Vietnamese
