Vietnam welcomed 2.96 million foreign visitors for Vietnam travel and 17.5 million domestic tourists, earning VND62,000 billion in the first half of this year.
This is the highest number of visitors so far, despite a number of difficulties, including price hikes. Travel to Vietnam is more and more attractive for both Vietnamese people as well as foreign tourists.
The information was released by Nguyen Van Tuan, head of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) at a press briefing in Hanoi on July 5 to introduce a new television programme called “Impressive Vietnam”.
The programme will be broadcast on VTV3 on Sunday and aims to introduce the country’s landscape, and the unique socio-cultural features of each region. The series will last for five years and hopefully will help develop Vietnam travel, develop travel tours and attractive tourism products and promote sustainable tourism growth.
Many activities in major areas have left deep impressions on visitors, including Halong Carnival Week, the International Fireworks Competition in Da Nang, Tourism Week in Khanh Hoa, the International Boat Racing Festival in Binh Thuan and National Tourism Year in south-central coastal Phu Yen.
The capital city of Hanoi received 650,000 foreign tourists during the first six months of 2011, up 23 percent over the same period last year, according to the Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
Most international visitors came from China, Australia and Japan. The number of travel tours to Vietnam have increased a lot. The increasing number of foreign tourists to Hanoi in the first half of the year was attributed to advertise Hanoi in key tourism markets and the successful organisation of the city’s millennial anniversary. Tourism infrastructure was also upgraded while tourism products and services have improved in quality and variety.
Hanoi aims to attract 13.25 million tourists, including 1.75 million foreign visitors, by the end of this year. By 2015, the figure is expected to reach 13.8 million, including 2 million foreigners.
CPV/VOVNEWS
