This year, Hanoi will launch new tourism products infused with local cultural traits to attract more visitors, as part of solutions to create breakthroughs for the tourism industry. 

Foreign tourists visit Duong Lam Ancient Village, Son Tay Town, 40km to the west of Hanoi. Photo: Hoai Nam/The Hanoi Times

This information was given by the Hanoi Department of Tourism at the conference on rolling out the municipal tourism tasks in 2023, held on January 5.

Since the beginning of 2023, the city travel industry has seen positive signals with an impressive number of visitors to the capital during the New Year holiday.

Launching many new products

This year, Hanoi will create new types of tourism, including adventure tourism, helicopter and hot air balloon services while applying virtual reality and digital technology.

The city will promote MICE [Meeting, Incentive, Conference, Exhibition] tourism in places with the resort and golf advantages associated with hosting cultural, sporting, political, social events and other major national and international festivals. 

Night-time services continue to be renewed with many activities at the walking space of Hoan Kiem Lake and its vicinity, the ones around the Son Tay Ancient Citadel, the Thien Quang Lake-Thong Nhat Park, and the pedestrian street in Hoang Mai District.

The department has cooperated with travel companies and localities which are home to tourist attractions, monuments, and heritage sites, to create night tours and experiential products based on traditional values.

Locals visit the Thang Long Imperial Citadel during the New Year holiday. Photo: Minh An/The Hanoi Times

To preserve, exploit and promote the value of the Thang Long Imperial Citadel in association with tourism development, Nguyen Hong Chi, Deputy Director of the Thang Long - Hanoi Heritage Conservation Center said the center has focused on developing the night economy with the “Deciphering the Thang Long Imperial Citadel” night tour and ancillary activities. Since January 4, the center has rolled out the tour for international visitors and plans to serve visitors on weekday evenings.

The center's 2023 agenda also includes annual events associated with intangible cultural values such as the Lunar New Year, the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Doan Ngo Festival, and the Co Loa Festival.

Meanwhile, the department and relevant agencies have implemented some pilot models for the development of rural economy, agriculture and tourism in association with the new rural construction in the city in the period 2022-2025.

At the same time, it has planned to build community-based tourism which covers tours to craft villages, tourist attractions and cultural values of ethnic minorities in five districts of Ba Vi, Thach That, Quoc Oai, Chuong My, and My Duc.

Key tasks of the tourism industry

Ba Vi National Park, a famous tourist attraction in Hanoi's suburban areas. Photo: Hoai Nam/The Hanoi Times

With such activities, the city is expected to welcome 22 million arrivals in 2023, an increase of 17.6% on year. Among them, the number of domestic visitors would be about 19 million, up 10.5% from 2022.

Tourism revenue is expected to hit VND77 trillion (US$3.26 billion), an annual rise of 28.2%. The average occupancy rate of accommodation establishments and hotels reached 45%, up 5% year-on-year.

Director of Hanoi Department of Tourism Dang Huong Giang said that one of the key tasks of the tourism industry is to focus on planning and investing in infrastructure development in a professional, modern, and environmentally-friendly manner.

She added the unit has actively cooperated with embassies and representative agencies of Vietnam abroad to organize tourism promotion programs in foreign markets such as JATA Tourism Expo Japan and IFTM [International and French Travel Market] Top Resa, the multi-purpose trade show for tourism and travel in France.

At the same time, the city will implement reciprocal tourism promotion programs to member countries under the Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific (CPTA), Tourism Promotion Organization for Asian-Pacific Cities (TPO), and the Lancang-Mekong Tourist Cities' Alliance, according to the department.

Giang said human resources are also an issue for the capital’s tourism in the process of recovery and growth after a long period of stagnation due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The industry has worked with training facilities to improve the quality of human resources at three levels state management, corporate governance, and workers.

The department has applied the national standards for tourism in training and teaching, moving towards the application of international standards.

Speaking at the conference on January 5, Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Nguyen Manh Quyen called on the industry to innovate and restructure to become a modern, professional, prestigious, and highly competitive economic sector based on three breakthroughs: increasing investment, creating incentive mechanisms and supporting the digital transformation of tourism.

"The municipal tourism sector must aspire to ensure sustainable development, making an important contribution to the economic growth of the city, with the aim of becoming a leading economic sector," he said.