Hanoi's tourism industry is gearing up to welcome around 30 million tourists by 2025 and earn over VND130 trillion (US$5.2 billion), according to the city's tourism development plan released by Deputy Chairman of Hanoi People's Committee Nguyen Manh Quyen. 

The night tour offers a new perspective that visitors to Hanoi's Temple of Literature cannot experience when visiting the relic during the day. Photo: Lai Tan/The Hanoi Times

To achieve this goal, Hanoi will focus on building attractive tourism products, including cultural ones, MICE tourism, community-based, entertainment-sports, ecological, healthcare, and golf tourism.

Hanoi will take measures to attract more foreign tourists, especially from Northeast Asia (China, Japan, and South Korea), ASEAN, the European Union, and the US, and gradually tap potential markets such as India, Middle Eastern countries, Australia, and Eastern European countries.

Emphasis will be placed on enhancing services and amenities at destinations and launching tours associated with historical and cultural values and heritage.

The city is working to achieve a number of tourism development goals in 2024-2025 that are equal to or greater than those attained prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to Nhu Thi Ngan, General Director of Hanoi Tourism Investment Joint Stock Company, Hanoi should look for ways to encourage tourists to stay longer in the capital.

"As Hanoi is a transfer point to other northern provinces, tourists often spend a few days in the city before traveling to other places. It has long been a challenge for Hanoi to keep visitors in the city longer," Ngan told The Hanoi Times.

To encourage visitors to stay longer, she suggested Hanoi develop promotional plans on domestic and international media and television channels, as well as advertise the capital's tourism on digital platforms and social networks targeting key and potential markets. 

A Britíh tourist at Quang Phu Cau incense-making village in Ung Hoa District, 35 kilometers from downtown Hanoi. Photo: Le Giang/The Hanoi Times

The impressive global awards have once again affirmed the capital city's tourism products. Last year, Hanoi won several international tourism awards, including "Asia's Leading City Destination 2023" and "Asia's Leading City Break Destination 2023", while its Department of Tourism earned the title of "Asia's Leading City Tourist Board."

In addition to launching new night tours, Hanoi has promoted community-based tourism, eco-tourism, and agro-tourism, among other initiatives, and started a tourism database system at dulich.myhanoi.vn in early 2023. It has also developed a digital tourism map in Vietnamese and foreign languages.

Since the end of 2023, the city's tourism department has been studying the development of new tourist routes, including the "Exploring the Nam Thang Long Heritage Road", which capitalizes on the strengths of cultural heritage and craft villages in suburban areas; and the route from the city downtown to Thanh Tri, Thuong Tin, Phu Xuyen districts, which takes tourists to famous craft villages in the districts.

Another tour from the city center to the Binh Da communal house in Thanh Oai District, the Quang Phu Cau incense-making village in Ung Hoa District, and a silk village in My Duc District is also designed to keep tourists in Hanoi longer.