vn tourism 31mar02

vna

vat

VIET NAM TARGETS ASEAN TOURISTS AND DIVERSITY OF SERVICES

   Ha Noi, March 31(VNA) -- The Viet Nam Administration of Tourism (VAT) plans to attract more tourists from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in order to achieve its target of 4 million international arrivals and over USD 2 billion in revenue by 2005.
   The five-year development strategy was dislosed by VAT Deputy General Director Pham Tu to the Viet Nam News Agency's Econet bulletin on March 26.
   Tu said his agency has made plans to speed up its promotion campaign themed "Viet Nam - a new destination in the 21st century", focusing on better tapping the ASEAN market.
   More than 1.5 million people from ASEAN countries travelled to other member countries in 2000, making up 40 percent of the international arrivals into all the 10 member countries, meanwhile Viet Nam welcomed just 250,000, only a small fraction of the potential market.
   Efforts are being made to attract foreign tourists to traditional festivals, especially the Hue festival scheduled for May, and major sports events such as the 23rd SEAGAMES next year. Localities, regions, travel companies, and hotels have been making concerted efforts to improve tourist facilities and services so as to encourage foreign tourists to stay longer in the country and increase their spendings by between 10 and 20 percent.
   Tourist spending remains low with most of the money being channelled into food, accommodation and travel. Foreign tourists in Viet Nam spend relatively little money on recreation, and entertainment, and goods. It is, therefore, necessary to upgrade traditional craft villages, promote the production and sale of handicrafts and fine art articles, as a means of increasing the revenues earned from tourists by between 10 and 20 percent. It also aims to increase the number of foreign arrivals by the same rates, the senior Tourist Official explained.
   In addition, VAT has planned to upgrade infrastructure, including traffic systems, and build large tourist complexes with recreation and entertainment centres. In 2001, the Government invested VND 266 billion in uprading local infrastructure facilities in four major tourist sites, Tu informed.
   The State Tourism Steering Board has encouraged close coordination between the travel agencies and civil aviation with other relevant ministries: Foreign Affairs; Public Security; Defence; Culture and Information; Trade; Transport and Communications; Science, Technology and Environment, as well as the Planning and Investment and Finance branches. All these efforts are aimed at creating a friendly and safe environment for tourists while ensuring high economic efficiency, said Tu.
   In addition to Government support, the Viet Nam tourist industry has received its best ever foreign financial assistance, including EURO 12 million in personnel training from the European Union. VAT has also signed cooperation agreements with Brunei, Belgium, Cambodia and Germany, Tu said.
   The country now boasts 110 hotels with almost 13,200 three-to-five star rooms. An increasing number of sites, including former imperial Hue city and Ha Long bay, recognised by the United Nations' Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as World Heritages Sites, have also helped raise Viet Nam's tourism opportunities, said Tu.
   Vietnam Airlines has also contributed to opening Vietnamese tourism to the world by cooperating with foreign partners to open a large number of direct flights. Thai Airlines, for example, has opened direct flights from Bangkok to Central Da Nang city, providing easy access to three UNESCO-recognised World Heritage Sites: the old imperial citadel of Hue, the ancient town of Hoi An, and My Son Temple.
   Vietnam Airlines has opened direct flights to Viet Nam from Singapore, Taiwan and the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Kunming and Beijing. In April next, the national flag carrier is scheduled to open a route from Ho Chi Minh City to Tokyo, Japan, in order to serve the increasing number of tourists from these two major markets. Arrivals from Japan rose by 29 percent and from China, 30 percent, in 2000, the VAT official concluded.--VNA