HÀ NAM — Authorities in the northern province of Hà Nam have announced a master plan for tourism development by 2030.

The master plan, issued at a conference held recently in the province, aims to develop it into a tourism hub in the Red River Delta.

Basing on its geological and regional conditions, the province’s tourism offerings will include innovative tourism resort products associated with science and technology, along with festivals and spiritual, cultural and historical relics.

Tam Chúc National Tourism Complex in Kim Bảng District will be the focus with development prioritised over an area of 4,000 hectares in Ba Sao Town and three villages of Vồng, Khuyến Công and Khả Phong in Khả Phong Commune.

The site, together with its adjacent tourism clusters, is expected to form an attractive tourism centre of the Red River Delta, the north-east coastal region and the nation at large by 2030, under a master plan approved earlier by Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc.

By 2020, Hà Nam tourism aims to have 2.5-3 million tourists annually, including 190,000 foreigners.

It is expected to welcome about 3.7 million visitors by 2025, of whom 470,000 are expected to be foreigners. The respective figures will be 6 million and 750,000 five years later.

By 2030, the province targets to increase the number of tourist arrivals to 7.6 million.

Total revenue from tourism in the province is expected to reach VNĐ2 trillion (US$86 million) by 2020 and VNĐ10.3 trillion ($441 million) by 2030, or an annual average increase of 10-15 per cent, creating jobs for 21,000 local people, including over 8,300 direct employees.

The development master plan aims to ensure consistency with relevant strategies and plans which have been approved by authorities to exploit the province’s potential strength and characteristic values.

It says tourism development should be implemented closely along with the preservation of natural resources and environment, ensuring the livelihoods of local people and the restructuring of employment to increase income, making the most of local labour resources to serve the tourism industry.

The plan promotes a close connection between tourist resorts and tourist sites in the Red River Delta and the northeastern coast as well as among the northern key economic zones and the southern tourist areas of Hà Nam to safeguard the national security and defence and to meet the demands of socio-economic development.

The Director of the Hà Nam Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Lê Xuân Huy, said the provincial People’s Committee approval to the master plan had created momentum for the province’s tourism industry to take off and develop into an important economic sector.

“It will help promote the province’s industrial development, boost trading and develop others sectors such as health, science, education, high-quality agriculture and manufacturing industries in the province,” said the official.— VNS