The aerial view of Cổ Loa - Hà Nội's oldest citadel. VNA/VNS Photo Mai Mai

HÀ NỘI - To meet tourists’ demands and needs in 2022, many new breakthrough products will be on offer when borders reopen, according to the director of the city’s Department of Tourism Đặng Hương Giang. 

Under the plan, the tourism activities will be conducted flexibly and adaptively to the pandemic condition. This highlights the coordination among sectors and localities to build and improve the quality of destinations, and to create high-quality tourism products.

“The Hà Nội Department of Tourism, along with a number of districts with potential and strengths such as Ba Vì, Sơn Tây, Mỹ Đức, Sóc Sơn, will invest building models of agricultural, rural and community tourism towards green tourism, as well as tourist destinations associated with local heritage-relics or craft villages," said the director.

In particular, the capital's tourism will be completely reformed and restructured to become a modern, professional, branded and highly competitive economic sector, she noted.

To achieve this goal, Hà Nội’s green economy will focus on three breakthroughs – increasing investment resources; developing mechanisms to encourage and support tourism development; conducting digital transformation to ensure sustainable development and significantly contributing to the city's economic growth, aiming towards the goal of becoming a spearhead economic sector.

According to Giang, Hà Nội’s Department of Tourism will focus on researching and building breakthrough and attractive products to meet tourists’ new demands and tastes in the new context.

In addition, the capital's tourism will strengthen links with businesses to promote, cooperate, exploit and develop the tourism market, while promoting cooperation with a number of key provinces and cities such as HCMC or Đà Nẵng to build and develop strong tours of Hà Nội like MICE tourism (meetings, incentives, conferencing and exhibitions), tourism combined with healthcare, among others.

At the same time, coordination with domestic and international media units will also be strengthened to promote the image of tourism in the capital and get prepared to welcome international tourists under the direction of the government.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-9 pandemic, many Hà Nội's citizens have opted for tourism destinations in suburban areas. VNA/VNS Photo Mai Mai

Roadmap

The plan to restore and develop Hà Nội’s tourism in adaptation to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022-2023 will be conducted in two stages.

In the first phase, lasting from the first and second quarters of 2022, activities to welcome and serve tourists will be implemented in localities in association with safe pandemic control and prevention procedures. Accordingly, management agencies and tourism businesses are ready to prepare resources and conditions to welcome international tourists under the allowance of the government.

Tourism activities are regulated according to the city's pandemic level. In the case of a complicated pandemic, they will be reduced in scale and scope appropriately.

In phase 2, starting from the third quarter of 2022, all tourism activities and products in the city will be restored, regardless of their types, scales and scopes in the condition of safely adapting to the pandemic. The city will implement the plan to welcome international tourists according to the Government's opening schedule, focusing on key tourism markets with high vaccine coverage and good pandemic control.

The fulfilment of the set goals demands that the Department of Tourism and relevant organisations synchronously implement many solutions, including ensuring safety at destinations and tourism service business establishments, building diverse, unique and attractive tourism products as well as a number of models of rural and agricultural tourism development.

In addition, the organisations will strengthen advertising and promotion activities to attract tourists; accelerate digital transformation in tourism activities; support enterprises to develop human resources to meet the requirements of tourism recovery and thoroughly prepare plans to welcome international tourists.

Hà Nội’s authorities have officially allowed the reopening of a series of heritage sites in the city, such as the Temple of Literature and Hỏa Lò Prison Relic, since February 15, which have attracted a large number of tourists.

According to the recovery plan, Hà Nội strives to welcome and serve 9-10 million visitors in 2022, including 1.2-2 million international visitors. Total revenue from tourists is expected to reach VNĐ27-35 trillion.

By 2023, the city is planning to welcome and serve 12-14 million visitors, including 2.5-3.5 million international visitors, earning a total revenue from VNĐ42 to 55 trillion. VNS