VietNamNet Bridge – Director of the Ha Noi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, To Van Dong, spoke to Tien Phong (Vanguard) newspaper about Ha Noi being listed as one of TripAdvisor's top destinations.

Illustrative image -- File photo

What do you think about Ha Noi being included in TripAdvisor's top-10 destinations list?

Ha Noi's spot in the top 10 Travellers' Choice Destinations 2015 is great for the tourism industry. This shows the true potential of the city, as well as efforts and achievements in the past.

However, it also poses many difficulties and challenges because we need to maintain this title, and continuously contribute to strengthen trademarks and images of the peaceful, civilised, safe and friendly capital. Ha Noi will try to effectively implement plans and projects to promote tourism.

What will the department do to solve tourists' problems, such as high taxi fees and pickpockets?

This information is a specific case. The department has established customer support centres to provide tourism information and deal with tourists' problems. The centres have closely co-operated with relevant agencies to promptly handle the tourists' issues.

In addition, the department has also strengthened information dissemination to raise awareness among vendors, taxi and cyclo drivers, and improve the quality of services.

What are the goals of Ha Noi's tourism sector?

Tourism development should be based on the available potential and advantages of the location. Ha Noi, with great natural heritage, has a lot of tourism potential. Besides focusing on current strengths, the tourism department needs to take steps to preserve cultural values and create new products, in accordance with the trend of development and international integration.

In addition, the department has continuously improved service quality through reviewing restaurants and other services.

What does the department do to support travel companies?

Tourism products are always closely linked with markets. Every tourist business has its own strategy to build and offer tourism products based on the clients' tastes.

As a state agency managing tourism in the capital city, the department has done the good job of helping businesses find tourism products suitable for each market. We have also organised exchange programmes between travel agencies and tourist attraction managers in Ha Noi, to keep them informed about tours and tourist routes.

VNS