THỪA THIÊN- HUẾ — Former imperial capital city of Huế received 1.5 million foreign tourists last year, increasing by 42.5 per cent in 2016.

Foreign tourists comprised half of the total visitors to Huế, a UNESCO world heritage site, famous for its imperial architecture and culture.

The highest number of foreign tourists – 26 per cent of the total – was from South Korea. Visitors from France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany and Thailand had the second to sixth highest percentages, respectively.

Total revenue from tourism last year was US$155 million.

According to the local Tourism Department, the tourism sector made attempts to diversify its products by adding tour programmes to lagoons and rural areas and introducing destinations outside the UNESCO heritage system.

The sector expects to receive 4.2 million visitors this year, half of them foreign tourists.

To achieve this target, the department called for private investment to develop standard restaurants that could accommodate up to 2,000 customers at the same time. It also requested local authorities to introduce direct flights from Huế to countries with the highest proportion of tourists to the city, including Japan, South Korea and Thailand.

It also suggested local authorities to improve the service quality and behavior of both public agencies and civil facilities towards tourists.

Huế is considered a top tourism hub in the country. But tourism in the city has not witnessed consistent development in the past few years, mainly due to the narrow mindset towards tourism management by local authorities. It was only last year that local authorities formed a separate tourism department with qualified personnel to aid growth in the sector. — VNS