Vĩnh Hy is one of the four most beautiful bays in Viêt Nam. VNA/VNS Photo Mạnh Linh Adjacent to Ninh Chữ Beach and Núi Chúa National Park, Vĩnh Hy Bay is one of the world’s nine recognised biospheres. VNA Photo Mạnh Linh

Ninh Thuận Province plans to develop tourism into a spearhead economic sector by raising both the scale and quality of services, according to the province's Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Nguyễn Văn Hoà.

The south central province is proud to have multiple attractive tourist destinations with beautiful beaches and scenery. It is accessible by air, land road, railway, and sea.

Ninh Thuận focuses on developing branded tourism products and services, added value and high competitiveness along with promoting digital transformation and developing human resources to serve high-class tourism. It also focuses on exploiting tourism resources and connecting its tourist attractions with other destinations in neighbouring provinces.

The province is concentrating on developing four key tourism products including sea resorts, cultural tourism (especially Chàm cultural heritage sites), high-tech agriculture, and ecotourism associated with Núi Chúa National Park.

The province has developed four new products: exploration entertainment, semi-wild hunting, experiential travel, and health and wellness. Other complementary tourism products are community entertainment tours, culinary tours, tours of renewable energy production facilities, and commercial services.

Ninh Thuận will develop its tourism in four zones. The central one is Phan Rang-Tháp Chàm City and the neighbourhoods. It offers tours of the city’s heritage sites, beach resorts, cuisine, and nightlife entertainment services.

The northeast zone offers marine, forest, and agricultural ecotourism, mainly in the Vĩnh Hy, Bình Tiên, Núi Chúa and Thái An areas. This area plans to offer high-end tourism tied to the local specialties of grape products and wine.

The southeast zone focuses on resort tourism and exploration of sand dunes, salt fields, and sea tours in the Cà Ná and Dinh cape areas. It targets the high-end tourist segment with salt resort tourism products and desert-style resorts, while the western area is developing community tourism and forest eco-tourism.

Ninh Thuận is striving to attract 3.5 million visitors and earn VNĐ2.9 trillion (US$118.3 million) in tourism revenue by 2025. This would contribute 13 per cent to the province’s gross regional domestic product (GRDP) and create jobs for 15 per cent of its work force.

By 2030, the province expects to turn tourism into a spearhead economic sector, striving to welcome 6 million visitors and earn about VNĐ5.9 trillion (US$256.5 million) in revenue.

The province has made many decisions to attract large-scale investors with large-scale tourism projects. By the end of 2023, the province has 57 tourism projects granted investment registration certificates with total registered capital of over VNĐ51.6 trillion.

Tourists flock to Poklong Giarai Tower. Ninh Thuận Province has many interesting places to attract tourists. Photo: baotainguyenmoitruong.vn

Last year, Ninh Thuận Provincial People's Committee [Government] boosted tourism promotion activities and organised many large-scale events to create a good impression for tourists such as: Ninh Thuận Grape-Wine Festival 2023, receiving a UNESCO certificate for "Ceramic art of the Chăm people on the List of intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent protection", and signing a tourism development cooperation agreement between Khánh Hoà and Ninh Thuận for the period 2023 - 2025.

The number of tourists to Ninh Thuận has increased over the years. In 2023, it reached 2.9 million, an increase of 20.8 per cent over the same period in 2022, of them 40,000 international visitors, up by 239 per cent.

During the recent Lunar New Year holiday, the number of visitors to the province rose unprecedentedly to 99,000, a 17.9 per cent increase over the same period last year, of which, international visitors were estimated at 10,000, an increase of 11.6 per cent over the same period last year.

Playing adventure games on sun-soaked sand dunes is one of the must-try activities for tourists when they come to Ninh Thuận. VNA/VNS Photo

The province has a 100-km coast that stretches from Bình Tiên to Cà Ná. Its natural landscape and culture are advantages for tourism development.

Warm, sunny weather all year round makes Ninh Thuận suitable for growing grapes, jujube, garlic, asparagus, and aloe vera, and raising sheep and goats. Its fruit orchards and sheep farms attract many tourists.

Between high mountain ranges and the sea are white sand beaches. Famous destinations in Ninh Thuận include Ninh Chữ, Bình Tiên, and Cà Ná beaches, Nam Cương sand dune, Dinh cape, and Rái cave.

Vinh Hy Bay is said to be one of the eight most beautiful beaches in Việt Nam.

The province also now has a number of world-class resorts including Bình Tiên, Vĩnh Hy, Long Thuận, Hoàn Mỹ, and Ninh Chữ Sailing Bay. VNS