Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Thanh Binh visited the booth of Thua Thien Hue displayed on the sidelines of the forum
The forum welcomed the participation of more than 300 delegates who are leaders of the central departments and agencies; leaders of provinces and cities; international organizations in Vietnam; corporations, domestic and foreign enterprises. The representative of Thua Thien Hue was the Standing Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Thanh Binh.
Generating strength from links
The forum aimed at creating links of inter-regional products, helping local tourism businesses to effectively exploit their potentials, and organize tourism stimulus programs. This will promote the exchange of tourist markets between the two ends of the country and the Central coast region, which is rich in potentials and products. This will also increase the number of domestic tourists between localities.
This linkage is considered a lever to create a synergy to improve the competitiveness and attractiveness of Vietnam's tourism compared to other countries in the region once the international tourism market reopens after COVID- 19.
Businesses signing cooperation in front of the forum's delegates
The overall evaluation of delegates at the forum was that in 2020, with the COVID-19 epidemic and natural disasters in the Central region, the tourism industry had been heavily affected. However, with the active directions of the Government, ministries and the consensus and unanimity of the entire People, the epidemic was prevented and controlled, and socio-economic activities had returned to a new normal state.
Mr. Le Tri Thanh, Chairman of Quang Nam Provincial People's Committee, Chairman of the Key Central Economic Region Council for the term of 2019-2020, said that in the complicated epidemic conditions in the world in which Vietnam is yet to be open to international visitors, the domestic tourism market is considered a necessary and important starting point for tourism recovery and development.
The Tourism Development Link Forum is an event marking an important and comprehensive turning point in the cooperation between provinces, associations and businesses in order to promote the linkage of tourism development in the North – Central – South regions, thereby recovering and developing local tourism.
“The goal is to strive to increase the rate of tourists, contribute to the recovery of tourism development after the impact of the epidemic, and effectively contribute to the socio-economic development of the region in particular and the whole country in general,” Mr. Thanh said.
Unleashing tourism potential
Speaking at the forum, Mr. Le Thanh Liem, Standing Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, also showed figures that, in the first 10 months of 2020, the total number of visitors to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi fell sharply and the provinces in the central key economic region were also seriously affected. Therefore, it is necessary to implement more powerful solutions to stimulate domestic tourism, especially, link development to unlock the potential of the tourism industry.
Reality is that Hanoi City, Ho Chi Minh City and the five central provinces are rich in tourism potentials, each with its own strengths in tourism. Ho Chi Minh City's highlight is tourism combined with conferences, workshops, events, shopping, culinary art, entertainment and cultural tourism; Hanoi has the strengths of cultural tourism, resort tourism, ecotourism; and the 5 provinces in the Central region have the advantages of cultural and heritage tourism, culinary tourism, island tourism.
With the strengths mentioned above, along with the available geographical space, we have enough capacity to revive the tourism industry. In particular, the Forum to link tourism development among Hanoi City, Ho Chi Minh City and the Key Central Economic Region is one of the many solutions to realize that.
“Ho Chi Minh City is committed to promoting the implementation of activities to develop tourism between the city and the Key Central Economic Region to soon become reality and bring the highest benefits. At the same time, the city will focus on engagement of linked contents with the Key Central Economic Region in the process of deploying linked contents between Ho Chi Minh City with the linked regions, contributing to promoting domestic tourism development,” Mr. Liem affirmed.
According to Mr. Ngo Van Quy - Vice Chairman of Hanoi City People's Committee, Hanoi will actively coordinate with Ho Chi Minh City and the central provinces to implement stimulus programs. Each year this city is expected to have 5 million visitors and Hanoi will support these visitors to visit the central provinces.
Speaking at the forum, Mr. Nguyen Van Hung, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said that he supported commitments and coordinated contents between Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi City and the 5 provinces of the Key Central Economic Region.
According to Mr. Hung, if we want to develop sustainably, there is no other way than to coordinate with each other, develop links and joint ventures. It cannot stop at one isolated industry. In particular, with the tourism industry, this is an inevitable prospect because tourism is a general economic sector imbued with cultural imprints. Tourism is not confined to one space, to the scope of an administrative boundary, but it spreads out and the connection is not governed. If we wish to succeed, we must cooperate and connect.
At the forum, many tourism agreements between localities, businesses with many stimulus programs, tour products, tour promotions, etc., were signed.
Story and photos: NHAT MINH