Hanoi has been building new tourism products to lure more domestic and foreign visitors to the capital city, affirming its position as a tourism centre of the country, said the municipal Department of Tourism.

Foreign tourists at a pottery shop in Bat Trang village.

Basing on local potential and advantages, the city has planned five key tourism routes.

Those include the Old Quarter - Hoan Kiem Lake, the area around the West Lake, and the political centre in Ba Dinh district in combination with the ancient Thang Long Citadel and the Temple of Literature.

The suburban Dong Anh district is another route with focus on spiritual tourism at the Co Loa spiral-shaped citadel and Dao Thuc water puppetry village.

The fifth key route covers Ba Vi area with Duong Lam ancient village, many eco-resorts and traditional craft villages such as Van Phuc (silk making) and Bat Trang (ceramics).

Attracting investments for the tourism sector is also among the city’s top priority.

The city is calling on strategic investors to develop tourism in areas around the West Lake and the Red River as well as build a specialised tourism site in outlying Dong Anh district.

This year, several special tourism products have been launched, with some of them to become annual events, such as the “Ky uc Hanoi” (Memories of Hanoi), Hanoi traditional craft festival and Ao Dai festival.

Notably, the “Cam xuc Hanoi” ( Feelings of Hanoi) has exploited unique tangible and non-tangible values of the city from its beautiful natural landscape, historical sites to ancient crafts, folk arts and fine cuisine.

Over 5.6 million visits were made to Hanoi by both international and domestic travelers in the first quarter of this year, rising 10 percent from the same period in 2015.

The city raked in 16 trillion VND from tourism services, up 13 percent against the same time last year.

Hanoi was listed by the Lonely Planet – the world’s most popular travel guide book publisher – in the Top 10 best-value destinations for 2016.

The city was also named among the top five best cities for low-budget vacations in 2015 by DrPrem, a renowned travel and tourism website.

VNA