The hospitality sector of Vietnam brought the country VND28 trillion (US$1.75 billion) in revenue in the first half of this year, fulfilling 50 per cent of the whole year’s set target.
The capital was resulted from 2.1 million foreign visitors to the country during the period, year-on-year increase of 15 per cent. Most of them came from China, the US, South Korea and Japan.
The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has been working hard to work out plans to achieve ambitious targets of over four million foreign and 19-20 million domestic visitors, earning VND56 trillion (US$3.5 billion) by end-2007.
In cooperation with ministries, provinces and sectors, VNAT has attached importance to updating laws on tourism, issue new regulations in accordance with WTO commitments and other bilateral and multilateral commitments in the hospitality industry.
The sector also focuses efforts on completing several major projects, including plans for developing tourism in the northern mountainous region and a program on seaside tourism development.
It will continue to guide provinces in tackling problems that prevent the industry from development, including those in policies aiming to upgrade infrastructure and increase investment.
VNAT plans to accelerate reforms in the international travel licensing, hotel ratings and will focus on improving the quality of current tourism products to boost international coordination and exchange as well as opportunities to enter cooperative agreements with regional neighbors.
A program on developing human resources in the tourism sector will also be sent to the government for approval.
Notably, the tourism authority has also petitioned the government to offer visa exemptions to visitors from major tourist markets, including Russia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Australia.
Currently, tourism contributes 8 per cent to Vietnam’s national GDP. (VNA, Vietnam Panorama)
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