The Vietnam Tourism Association (VTA) on July 5 organized a conference on Resolution No 82 released in May 2023 on tasks and solutions to accelerate development of tourism. 

Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Doan Van Viet said this was the first conference to concretize the duties assigned by the government. 

Chair of the Da Nang Tourism Association Cao Tri Dung said the city has identified tourism as one of three pillars for economic development in the locality. 

In implementing the resolution, Da Lat has applied a series of solutions, such as cooperating with relevant agencies to promote tourism; and designing an ecosystem of new products suitable to the restructuring of the tourism industry after the pandemic, targeting specific groups of customers and increasing travelers’ experiences.

The city has also explored new potential markets and run large-scale tourism promotion campaigns, increased the recovery capability of the service sector, upgraded human resources quality, and created a safe and friendly environment.

Thanks to the measures, Da Nang has been recognized as one of the localities with the best tourism recovery. The number of domestic travelers has exceeded the peak figure in 2019, but only 70-80 percent of the inbound market has recovered because China, the largest market for Vietnam, has not fully recovered. Da Nang hopes that the 2019 peak will be exceeded in 2024.

VTA chair Vu The Binh said the number of foreign travelers to Vietnam has been increasing rapidly, but the figure is still below expectations because the country has to compete with other countries amid the economic downturn around the world.

“In such conditions, if we can’t do well and don’t have good products, we won’t be able to attract a high number of tourists,” he said.

Vietnam received 5.6 million travelers in the first six months of the year; the target of 8 million foreign travelers in 2023 is within reach, but the expectation of the government for the tourism industry is much higher.

“The tourism industry needs to make greater efforts to lure 10 million, or 12 million, foreign travelers,” Binh said.

Experts applauded the new visa policy. Dung said that the policy would set a new ‘airstrip' for many new groups of arrivals, especially active tourists, family and independent tourists.

Ngoc Ha