HÀ NỘI A national forum on tourism hosted by the Việt Nam Tourism Association (VITA) and Hà Nội Tourism Department will be held in April in the capital to discuss how to draw tourists in the future.

“While waiting for the opening doors to international tourists, tourism sector this year will focus on domestic market,” said Vũ Thế Bình, vice-chairman of the VITA.

“The forum will gather tourism enterprises and localities throughout the nation to connect and discuss ways to develop domestic tourism," he added.

He said some localities have used promotions to try to win customers but in early 2021, a third of domestic travel agencies no longer wanted to exploit international routes and 90 per cent of tourism enterprises stopped or reduced their operation scale.

The Golden Bridge in Sun World Ba Na Hills in Đà Nẵng City, which is among 100 top destinations in the world selected by the Time magazine. Photo baotintuc.vn

“The tourism sector has run out of power to promote tourism,” he said.

Bình explained that the forum will offer a chance for participants to connect services and create new products to lure visitors.

After the forum, the annual Vietnam International Travel Mart will be held between May 5 and 8.

According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, demand for searching information on domestic destinations has sharply increased recently especially amid Việt Nam's solid control of the COVID-19 pandemic. Domestic travel activities have resumed in almost all provinces and cities nationwide.

Though demand for airlines information from domestic tourists has not increased much recently according to statistics from the Destination Insights tool by Google, searches for short trips in nearby destinations increased markedly in March.

Bình noted the statistics show that tourists now prefer short trips to near places by their own vehicles and avoid public transportation due to fear of the virus. VNS