The capital city plans to welcome 30 million visitors, including 5.7 million foreigners, by 2020, according to the municipal Department of Tourism.

The city also hopes to generate VND120 trillion (US$5.36 billion) in tourism revenue by 2020, with an annual growth of 15-17 per cent till then.

Head of the tourism department Do Dinh Hong said the city would continue to develop infrastructure, improve tourism products in terms of quality and diversity and have better human resources in a move to make tourism more sustainable and a key industry.

The department's statistics revealed that Ha Noi posted annual growth of more than 10 per cent in tourist arrivals in recent years. In 2015, the city attracted approximately 19.7 million travellers. Of them, 3.3 million came from overseas, accounting for 40 per cent of the foreign visitors to Viet Nam.

The number of travellers coming to the city reached more than 11 million in the first half of this year, including two million foreigners, up 30 per cent year-on-year. That has earned the city VND31.3 trillion ($1.4 billion).

During the reviewed period, most foreign tourists came from China, South Korea, Japan and the United Kingdom, besides Australia, the United States, France and Germany. However, the department said, the number of international visitors to Viet Nam was still much lower than that of other capital cities in the region. It was just one-sixth of the number of visitors going to Bangkok (Thailand), and one-third that of Singapore and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia).

Hanoitourist Director Do Duc Ke said the capital city needed to make greater efforts to affirm its position as the country's largest tourist centre.

Top priority should be given to developing attractive tourism packages and perfecting the quality of existing tourist services, he said. 

VNS