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| Pedestrian streets around Hoan Kiem Lake attract a large number of tourists (Photo: VNA) |
The capital city will also explore emerging and potential markets, including India, Halal countries, South America, and Australia. The city is concentrating efforts on increasing tourist spending and extending the duration of stays, particularly concerning foreign travellers.
This year, Hanoi aims to welcome approximately 27 million visitors, including 5.5 million foreigners, up 9.2% and 16.4% year-on-year, respectively. The total revenue from tourism is expected to reach around 103.74 trillion VND (4.22 billion USD), an annual increase of 11.1%. The average occupancy rate of accommodation facilities and hotels is targeted at 62%.
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| Hoan Kiem lake at night. (Source: hanoimoi.com.vn) |
To achieve these targets, alongside enhancing state management in the sector, Hanoi is focusing on developing products, including experiential tours linked to heritage, relic sites and traditional villages, as well as culinary, MICE, healthcare, river, and agro tourism.
The municipal tourism sector will build plans on promotion activities in domestic and foreign markets, and actively participate in international promotion programmes and tourism fairs, such as the JATA Tourism EXPO Japan, Korea World Travel Fair, and IFTM Top Resa tourism fair in France. It will provide promotional materials and films to Vietnamese embassies abroad, helping spread the image of the capital's tourism.
In his remarks, Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Nguyen Manh Quyen emphasised the need to accelerate the construction of large-scale entertainment projects to serve tourism. He also called for intensified communications and promotion efforts as well as the organisation of attractive events.
International arrivals in Vietnam expected to grow in 2024
According to VNA, the volume of international arrivals in Vietnam is forecast to increase in 2024, according to The Outbox Company, a Vietnam-based market intelligence company, which focuses on South East Asia & the Pacific.
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| Tourists to Hanoi. (Source: NDO) |
In a report titled “Vietnam Travel Landscape 2024” released on January 17, The Outbox Company said, Vietnam’s aviation industry has bounced back impressively since the travel restrictions triggered by COVID-19 were relaxed.
Despite challenges in 2022 and surging costs in 2023, the hospitality industry of Vietnam has also shown resilience. For example, a higher occupancy rate and basic efficiency are also considered positive signals for 2024. Hotel bookings are rising strongly, and the hotel investment market is now in the process of full recovery, the firm said.
Given such signals, the travel landscape in 2024 is following such main trends as experiential tourism, wellness tourism, eco-tourism, and sports tourism.
Talking about Vietnam’s tourism achievements in 2023, the company said, the tourism industry has demonstrated a significant recovery, with a remarkable increase in international tourist arrivals to reach 12.59 million, soaring almost four-fold from 2022.
A bright spot of Vietnam’s tourism industry in 2023 was the diversity of international tourist sources. Besides tourists from East Asian markets like China and the Republic of Korea, there is the potential of those from some other regions, especially India, it added.
Hanoi jumps 16 places on list of the world’s most liveable cities
Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi has moved up 16 spots on the list of the world’s most liveable cities in 2023, which was carried out by the ECA International, reported NDO.
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| Hanoi jumps 16 places on list of the world’s most liveable cities |
ECA’s Location Ratings objectively evaluate cities around the world to form an assessment of the overall quality of living for expats in over 500 locations across the globe.
The ranking is based on a variety of liveability factors including the availability of health services; housing and utilities; isolation; access to a social network and recreational and leisure facilities; infrastructure; climate; personal safety; socio-political tensions; and air quality. The impact of some of the factors assessed will vary according to the home location of the assignee.
Singapore has maintained its position as the most liveable city in Asia according to the latest annual Location Ratings Report from global mobility expert, ECA International (ECA).
“With excellent infrastructure and facilities, low crime rates and little exposure to socio-political tensions, Singapore remains a very attractive location for expatriates,” said Mark Harrison, General Manager for Asia at ECA. “However, other locations in the region have improved and the gap between Singapore and other locations has fallen.”
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| Tourists to Hanoi (Source: VNA) |
“We have seen lots of small but significant improvements in areas such as transport infrastructure, health services and recreational facilities in several locations throughout Southeast Asia leading to these locations becoming more attractive,” said Harrison. This pattern of incremental improvement has seen the likes of Jakarta (213th to 196th), Phnom Penh (200th to 184th) and Hanoi (160th to 144th) climb the rankings.
Mainland Chinese cities have climbed significantly in the rankings in the last ten years, despite losing some momentum during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Some aspects of life continue to be challenging for expatriates, such as high levels of pollution, censorship, and suboptimal healthcare facilities. However, improvements in areas such as transport infrastructure and international schooling provision are the reason cities like Shenzhen (137th this year compared to 152nd ten years ago), Xi’an (163rd this year compared to 176th), and Wuhan (up from 160th to 145th) have climbed in the rankings./.