Published:  22:58 Monday - March 11, 2013

Hanoi Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism Deputy Director Mai Tien Dung said that Hanoi welcomed 2.08 million visitors during the nine days of this year’s Lunar New Year Festival, an 11 percent increase from a year ago.

These included 64,680 foreign visitors, a 12.4 percent increase, and more than two million domestic visitors, an 11 percent increase. Top tourist destinations were the Perfume Pagoda hosting 260,000 visitors and Van Mieu-Quoc Tu Giam (Temple of Literature) with 200,000 visitors.

It is expected that Hanoi’s tourism sector will receive 15.5 million visitors this year including 2.25 million foreigners and 13.25 million domestic visitors.

Hanoi Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism Deputy Director Mai Tien Dung said that tourism was one of sectors that had not been greatly affected by the recession. For this reason, the sector is confident of its growth in 2013.

The sector continued to grow rapidly in 2012 hosting 14.4 million visitors, including more than 2.1 million foreigners, a 11.3 percent increase on 2011, and almost 12.3 million domestic visitors, a 5.5 percent increase.

The adoption of the Hanoi Tourism Development Plan until 2020, with a Vision to 2030 would facilitate tourism planning and tourist product development investment. The Hanoi Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism said that the Hanoi tourism sector had expanded cooperative ties with many provinces and cities nationwide to improve the image of the capital in the eyes of visitors and foreign travel media.

Mai Tien Dung said that as a result of great efforts made by the municipal tourism sector, Hanoi has recently been listed among the top ten tourist destinations in Asia according to the online tourism journal Smart Travel in Asia, which has collected votes from millions of readers and travel writers worldwide. Hanoi took sixth place on the list in two consecutive years from 2011-2012.

The capital also ranked second on the list of top 100 cities worldwide in terms of the quality of hotel services, according to the Trivago website, which collected results from more than 140 online booking websites in 2012.

Mai Tien Dung said that to attract 15.5 million visitors this year, the municipal tourism sector will launch tourist events including a VITM Hanoi International Tourism Fair 2013 this coming April, a craft village tourism festival for Hanoi and Red River Delta provinces in October 2013, the Hai Phong Tourism Fair 2013 and a flamboyant festival. The sector is currently looking to promote the image of Hanoi and Vietnamese people abroad. Specifically, it will advertise Vietnamese tourism in the Korean cities of Seoul, Busan and Jeju, Canada, China, Russia and Tokyo.

Despite its remarkable achievements, the sector has many disadvantages in terms of management and services. It should overcome its shortcomings to match its potential. Major measures include developing craft village tourism and upgrading al cultural destinations in the city./.

Source:VEN