The six provinces represented at the meeting were Ha Giang, Tuyen Quang, Thai Nguyen, Bac Kan, Cao Bang and Lang Son.

Vice Director Ngo Hoai Chung of VNAT urged the leaders to pool their resources and lay out a strategy to capitalize on specific features of each province and their common regional identity.

In addition, Chung said they need to focus on solving environmental pollution issues along with food hygiene and safety matters if they are to have any chance of sustainably developing tourism.

That will require they pay more attention to educational and training programs for workers in the tourism industry and propagate information about the importance of tourism development to local people.

Participants at the meeting also proposed a number of measures to enhance cooperation among the provinces in the coming time, such as ways of attracting investment to improve the regions traffic and tourism infrastructure.