Hanoi Summer Tourism Offers Unique Experiences to Tourists

Hanoi has developed a specific development strategy for each market with distinctive products to attract tourists in the summer. For more information, our reporter has an interview with Ms. Dang Huong Giang, Director of Hanoi Tourism Department.

Could you tell us about the performance of Hanoi tourism this year?

In the first half of 2023, Hanoi welcomed an estimated 12.33 million tourists, representing a 42% YoY increase. Of these, 2.03 million were international tourists, marking a seven-fold growth, while 10.3 million were domestic tourists, up 22.6%. Total tourism revenue rose by 74.3% YoY to an estimated VND44.88 trillion (US$1.9 billion).

The city’s tourism industry exceeded 50% of the full-year target, with domestic tourist arrivals and revenue equal to 95% and 90% in 2019, respectively. The number of international tourists is expected to reach 75%.

Hanoi continued to be highly appreciated by prestigious travel websites and magazines for its tourism attractiveness in 2023. These are indeed good signs for the rapid tourism recovery and redevelopment of Hanoi amid declining global trade.

To promote its good achievements, what strategy did Hanoi adopt to attract tourists in the summer - the peak season of tourism?

Hanoi is known for its urban tourism and consistent seasonal offerings. The city offers unique tourism types and attractive destinations for all classes of tourists throughout the year. Every season, Hanoi has distinctive products to attract international and domestic tourists such as cultural tourism, leisure tourism, ecotourism, MICE tourism (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions tourism), and golf tourism. These are the unique appeals of Hanoi.

To attract tourists to Hanoi this summer, the Hanoi tourism industry researched and introduced both short- and long-term strategies. For the short-term strategy, the sector focused on developing characteristic tourism products with an emphasis on cultural-experience tourism, leisure tourism, night tourism, and sports tourism. Additionally, it promoted tourism communication, advertisement and promotion; developed advertising strategies and programs for specific customer segments during the summer such as tourists from southern provinces and cities, and tourists from Southeast Asian countries, and households. As for the long-term strategy, the tourism industry accelerated restructuring and ensured comprehensive and sustainable development with special attention paid to speeding up theme parks, high-class resorts, shopping centers; fostered training and development of high-quality human resources to meet tourism development needs in all four seasons; and boosted the development of cultural tourism and golf tourism.

What are considered the main tourism products of Hanoi?

In the summer, Hanoi’s tourism industry has focused on key product groups that distinguish it from other provinces and cities. First, the sector has continued to prioritize cultural tourism development and reform. In addition to supporting destination operators in building experiential tourism products, night tours at monuments, heritage sites and cultural sites, the city has prioritized the development of experience-enhancing services for tourists such as building river traveling routes to craft villages and cultural relics, and expanding the double-decker bus routes from downtown to suburban destinations.

Second, the industry is developing weekend leisure tourism and homestay tourism.

Third, it is developing sports tourism based on rivers, mountains and lakes: Developing mountaineering and cycling tourism in Soc Son and Ba Vi; introducing adventure sports tourism like zipline, hot air ballooning and archery in Long Bien, Ba Vi, Soc Son and other localities.

Fourth, it is promoting golf tourism development in combination with MICE tourism. The Department of Tourism will coordinate with the Golf Tourism Association and tourism service firms to build and develop one or two complete professional golf tourism tours with competitive prices.

In order to attract more visitors from other markets to Hanoi, how are tourism promotion and marketing developed?

The Department of Tourism will focus on building promotion and marketing plans for each specific market and target audience, with focus on two aspects: Building each specific product groups for different markets and improving visitors’ access to information. First, for each market segment, Hanoi’s tourism industry will have individual tourism product introduction and promotion strategies for each market and segment of customers, for example promoting golf tourism, sports tourism and leisure tourism in Northeast Asia; introducing cultural tourism, night tourism, culinary tourism in North America and Europe; advertising shopping tourism, festival tourism and eco-tourism in the domestic market.

Second, in order to best approach each different segment, the sector will develop detailed plans to organize tourism promotion programs and fairs throughout the year instead of just focusing on certain times.

At the same time, the sector will foster digital transformation in destination communication and introduction; deploy a variety of promotional campaigns on the city's websites and social networking platforms; and connect tourism business associations and companies to implement effective tourism promotion programs at major international tourism fairs.

Based on this year’s performance and expectations on market recovery, this summer, Hanoi hoped to welcome about 5.7 million domestic tourists, up 6% over the same period of 2022, and 1.1 million international visitors, a year-on-year increase of 2.5 times.

Thank you so much!

By Giang Tu, Vietnam Business Forum