Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism Nguyễn Văn Hùng. VNA/VNS Photo Doãn Tấn

International arrivals to Việt Nam in the first quarter of 2024 have surpassed the record set during the same period in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. This provides a basis for Việt Nam to continue innovating its approach and methods to promote comprehensive, rapid, and sustainable tourism development.

Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, Nguyễn Văn Hùng, spoke with Người Lao Động (The Labourer) newspaper on these positive results and the future of the tourism industry.

Statistics recently released by the General Statistics Office show that in the first quarter of this year, international arrivals to Việt Nam reached over 4.6 million visitors, a 72 per cent increase compared to the same period last year, and a 3.2 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2019. What factors have contributed to this success?

Following the recovery trend of the last months of 2023 and in the first three months of 2024, the number of international visitors to Việt Nam has shown positive growth. The number of visitors over the past three months has consistently averaged over 1.5 million, with a rising trend.

In March alone, international arrivals reached nearly 1.6 million, up 4.4 per cent compared to the previous month and up 78.6 per cent compared to the same period last year. Many key markets have recorded good growth, such as Japan, Belgium, France and Singapore. The large Chinese market continues its positive recovery, reaching over 350,000 visitors, up 19 per cent from the previous month.

These results are achieved thanks to the regular and timely attention and guidance from the Party, the National Assembly, the Government and the Prime Minister towards the tourism industry. Along with that is the close coordination of ministries, sectors, localities, and the consensus of the business community and the people, which have facilitated the recovery and acceleration of tourism.

These achievements are also the result of research, creativity, product innovation and the effectiveness of approaches that meet market demand, as well as promotion activities and diversification of tourism promotion methods by tourism businesses, destinations and tourism management agencies from central to local levels.

Another important factor is the clear impact of new visa policies applied since August 15, 2023 on extending the temporary residence period from 15 days to 45 days for countries unilaterally exempted from visas and implementing electronic visa issuance for all countries with temporary residence periods of up to 90 days.

I believe that the new policies have made it easier for international visitors to access Việt Nam, marking an important milestone for Vietnamese tourism in 2023. It reflects a positive shift in the perception of the role, position and contribution of the tourism industry to the economy, contributing to the removal of barriers that have existed for many years, and will have long-term impacts in the process of truly making tourism a spearhead economic sector of the country.

This year, the tourism industry has set a target of welcoming 18 million international visitors and 110 million domestic tourists. What solutions are there for tourism to make breakthroughs, achieve and even exceed the set goals?

Setting these targets aims to motivate the entire tourism industry. The key is to promote the substantial, comprehensive, rapid, and sustainable development of Việt Nam's tourism in the future. The tourism sector needs to effectively implement the motto of "Close linkage - Smooth coordination - Comprehensive cooperation".

In addition to effectively implementing tasks, we will proactively coordinate with ministries, sectors, and localities to continue advising and proposing mechanisms, policies and solutions to accelerate tourism development. This includes focusing on enhancing the guidance and connecting role of central and local management agencies regarding partnership models, as well as the leading role of tourism centres to form linkages, growth momentum.

It is essential to continue innovating and creating more unique tourism products based on different potentials, competitive advantages of each locality, region, suitable for various domestic and international visitor groups. This must be accompanied by enhancing cooperation to diversify resources and strongly innovate promotion methods, content, targeting high-spending markets to promote the development of a smart tourism ecosystem associated with digital transformation to enhance infrastructure connectivity, support, and enhance visitor experiences.

International visitors to Việt Nam are increasing, but the important issue is to retain them longer, have them spend more and return to Việt Nam more frequently. What are your thoughts on this?

I agree with this viewpoint. At the national online tourism conference in 2023, Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính pointed out that the global trend of deep globalisation and international integration, especially the Fourth Industrial Revolution, poses many challenges and demands new thinking, approaches and methods to develop the tourism industry.

The strategic orientation of Việt Nam's tourism is to develop professionally, with quality and efficiency; shifting from breadth to depth based on exploiting and promoting unique natural potential, outstanding opportunities, and competitive advantages associated with environmental protection, natural resources, culture, tradition, the beauty of the country and Vietnamese people.

To attract more international visitors, encourage them to stay longer, spend more and return to Việt Nam more often, we need specific solutions. First is to create attractive products. We need to leverage Việt Nam's unique natural, cultural, culinary, human and musical potential to create attractive tourism products. For cultural tourism, we need to develop cultural tourism tours that allow visitors to learn about Việt Nam's history, traditions and customs; while also building destinations that may include historical sites, traditional craft villages and unique festivals.

For nature-based tourism, we need to effectively utilise and exploit the unique natural landscapes of Việt Nam; organise mountain climbing tours, jungle exploration and visits to natural reserves.

We also need to focus on developing culinary tourism, offering more culinary tours for visitors to enjoy specialty dishes, learn how to cook and prepare food. Additionally, we need to focus on exploiting the strengths of coastal and island tourism by organising diving tours, island tours and water sports activities. Community-based tourism is also a strength that requires combining tourism with supporting local communities. We need more homestay tours to allow visitors to immerse themselves in the unique cultural identity of indigenous people.

It is necessary to continue improving administrative procedures, simplify visa procedures, and implement electronic visas to facilitate international visitors. At the same time, strengthen promotion and marketing, utilise media channels, events and cooperate with international partners to create interest and desire to explore new destinations, experiences in Việt Nam.

I believe that "Where there is a will, there is a way". If we do well in building products, have suitable tourism promotion methods, along with favourable access to destinations and competitive prices, then inevitably international visitors will stay longer, spend more and return to Việt Nam more frequently. VNS