Ha Noi hopes to welcome nearly 32 million tourists in 2020

Of this, foreign tourists numbered over 7 million, a year-on-year rise of 17%, including over 4.9 million foreigners staying overnight.

 According to the municipal Department of Tourism, the tourism sector is expected to gross over VND103.8 trillion (US$4.48 billion) in revenue, up 34% compared to the previous year.

 A year of hallmarks 

To achieve the aforementioned results, over the past year, Ha Noi’s tourism industry has implemented a number of synchronous solutions, such as focusing on effectively implementing the Politburo’s Resolution No. 08-NQ/TW dated January 16, 2017 on developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector, and the Resolution No. 06-NQ/TU dated June 26, 2016 of the Ha Noi Party Committee and Plan No. 20/KH-UBND dated November 11, 2016 of the Ha Noi People’s Committee on tourism development in the 2016-2020 period and the followings years.

In addition, the local tourism sector has constantly built and improved the quality of destinations, as well as improving the tourism environment. With seven new destinations recognized in 2019, Ha Noi now has a total of 15 tourist destinations. 

Especially, the tourism dissemination, advertising and promotion work has also contributed significantly to the general success of the sector, as the Ha Noi Department of Tourism has implemented a tourism promotion campaign on the U.S. Cable News Network (CNN), while signing cooperation programs with dozens of domestic news agencies to widely introduce the image of Ha Noi tourism to domestic and foreign tourists. 

In the last two years, the number of international visitors to Ha Noi has increased by 16-20% on average. Furthermore, the enhancement of tourism links with many provinces and cities has worked to facilitate the widespread promotion of Ha Noi tourism.

Chairman of the Ha Noi Tourism Business Association Phung Quang Thang said that Ha Noi’s destinations continued to impress through many interesting cultural and tourist events held regularly. Specifically, in the pedestrian space around Hoan Kiem Lake and surroundings, up to 410 cultural events were organized during the three years of pilot operations; more than 40 cultural events took place at the Temple of Literature Complex in 2019; and dozens of cultural events were held at the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long, including the activities associated with heritage education, contributing to attracting tourists to HaNoi.

Towards greater goals

Heading into 2020, Ha Noi will organize a number of important events, such as the 1010th anniversary of Thang Long-Ha Noi, the Formula 1 (F1) race and many large diplomatic activities.

Illustration photo

This is a challenge but also an opportunity for the capital’s tourism industry to make stronger development steps.

Ha Noi hopes to raise the number of tourist arrivals by over 10% from last year to nearly 32 million in 2020.

In particular, it aims to attract more than 8.2 million foreigners and nearly 23.8 million domestic visitors this year, representing year-on-year increases of 17% and 8%, respectively.

The capital city also looks to earn VND116.6 trillion – 120 trillion (US$5 billion – 5.2 billion) from tourists, up 12.3 – 15.5% from the previous year, and have an average occupancy rate of 65 – 68% at local accommodation facilities.

According to Mastercard’s Asia Pacific Destinations Index, Ha Noi ranked 15th among the 20 leading destinations in the region. 

The capital city was also shortlisted for the World’s Leading City Destination at the 2019 World Travel Awards (WTA).

These results came from efforts on building the tourism brand, improving the quality of services and destinations, and changing the method of tourism promotion./.

 By Vien Nhu