Hanoi expects to serve 23.83 million visitors, including 4.95 foreigners, this year, a rise of nine percent from the previous year.

Tourism revenue is estimated to reach 70.96 billion VND (3.12 million USD), up 15 percent against last year.

To realise the target, Hanoi is striving to expand its tourism market with the launch of new destinations and typical products.

Besides, local authorities have instructed the tourism sector to create breakthroughs in tourism promotion, expanding scale and improving professional skills in carrying out tourism communication and tourism development campaigns.

Hanoi authorities and US Cable News Network (CNN) reached a deal for 2017 and 2018, with the US channel agreeing to help Hanoi produce 30-second promotional videos, three and five minutes reports and a 30-minute programme. 

The deal, with a budget of two million USD, aims to capture the beauty of Hanoi to introduce to the world.

Videos of the “My Hanoi” programme were broadcast earlier this year, while those of “Hanoi: POV” have recently debuted in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America.

The 2017 Global Destinations Cities Index produced by credit card company Mastercard said foreign arrivals in the city grew at 16.4 percent between 2009 and 2016, the fastest after Osaka, Chengdu, Colombo, Abu Dhabi, Jakarta and Tokyo.

Entry of Jakarta and Hanoi into the top 10 point to Southeast Asia’s rising significance as a key travel hub, the report said.

In the previous edition, which measured arrivals growth between 2009 and 2015, Hanoi ranked 13th, while the Indonesian capital came in at 11th.

The survey, which ranked 132 cities, found the Asia-Pacific leading global tourism by dominating in terms of visitor arrivals and revenues, raking in 91.16 billion USD in 2016, compared to 74.74 billion USD for Europe and 55.02 billion USD for North America.

Hanoi was named the cheapest travel destination by TripAdvisor travellers between 2014 and 2016. The travel site estimated last year that a three-night holiday for two in Hanoi cost only 494 USD, a quarter of the New York cost, the most expensive travel destination in the ranking.-VNA