Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc chaired a conference on tourism development for the Central and Central Highlands regions in Thua Thien - Hue province on February 16.

The event gathered over 500 delegates from public agencies and the regions’ 19 cities and provinces, as well representatives from international organisations, businesses and foreign embassies.

Multiple leading businesses, who are strategic investors contributing strongly to the regional economic development, such as Laguna, Vietjet, Vietravel, Sun Group, Vina Capital and BRG, spent time to share comments at the conference.

Speaking at the event, PM Phuc expressed his wish to develop a tourism development cluster in the Central and Central Highlands regions to maximise the local potential of natural resources.

The regions bring in most of Vietnam's tourism resources, with a range of cultural heritages and diverse cultural treasures, which are qualified to form cultural tourism development groups related to history, ecotourism, hills and caves. The development of tourism into clusters will lead to the growth of other related industries, including infrastructure, aviation, accommodation, banking, insurance, healthcare and security and safety.

PM Phuc also expressed his hope that the local leaders would realise the proposals from experts and businesses to beautify the country's tourism image, thus facilitating the ability to attract investment and promote the efficiency of tourism promotion on a national scale.

The Central and Central Highlands regions are home to a lot of tourist destinations, attracting a large number of domestic and foreign travelers, with huge potential for tourism, especially sea and eco-tourism, thanks to multiple famous mountains, lakes and waterfalls.

In 2018, Vietnam welcomed over 15.5 million international tourists and served 80 million domestic holidaymakers. In particular, the regions welcomed roughly 56 million domestic visitors and more than 9.5 million international tourists, equivalent to approximately 28% of the country’s total. The total tourism revenue was more than VND110 trillion, accounting for around 18.75% of the country’s total.

Aviation is considered an important driving force to promote tourism in the Central Coastal and Central Highlands regions. Don Lam, founder of Vina Capital investment fund, said that it is important to invest in airports and open the sky to develop tourism. According to Don Lam, infrastructure including airport infrastructure is the most important factor in the investment decisions of his business.

Nguyen Quoc Ky, General Director of Vietravel Tourism Company, shared the Vina Capital's leader’s views, saying that airline development will surely boost tourism growth. Ky praised the success that Da Nang has achieved due to aviation, while proposing more open policies on aviation and visas for international tourists to create a breakthrough for regional development.

CEO of Vietjet, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, delivered a speech at the conference, sharing impressive figures in terms of the airline’s activities in the Central and Central Highlands regions. Accordingly, at 12 airports in 19 provinces and cities in the regions, including Hue, Da Nang, Cam Ranh, Dong Hoi, Phu Cat, Chu Lai, Tuy Hoa, Lien Khuong, Pleiku, Buon Ma Thuot, Vinh and Thanh Hoa, Vietjet is the pioneer in opening routes to the above local airports, contributing to boosting local tourism and economic development.

Vietjet performs the melodies of “Hello Vietnam” song across its domestic and international flights. The airline has invested in new, modern, comfortable and safe airplanes with new services, fresh on-board dishes and friendly and careful flight crews.

Vietjet also pioneered in printing Vietnam’s travel logo on its aircrafts’ hull. Vietjet aircraft puts on the national flag colours, exploiting nearly 70 international routes to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan (China), the Republic of Korea, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia and Myanmar.

The Vietjet leader said that the airline would continue to work closely with the regional provinces and cities to increase the frequency of flights, promote the opening of more international flights and boost tourism promotion, especially in international markets to 12 airports in 19 provinces and cities in the regions.

Sovico Holdings – a cofounder of Vietjet – is also willing to participate in projects calling for investment, participating in economic development and providing capital for projects, businesses and local people. The Vietjet's CEO said that the central region is a special destination for Sovico as from Furama, she and her colleagues have returned to Vietnam to invest in the fields of tourism, hotels, real estate, finance, banking, aviation and energy, contributing to the country's economic development.

Nhan Dan