Hanoi has welcomed 13.87 million visitors in the first nine months of this year, an increase of more than four times over the same period last year. Of these, 766,000 are international visitors.
Large-scale tourism events will be organized
| An Ao dai performance in Van Mieu Temple of Literature in Hanoi in early 2022. Photo: toquoc.vn |
Despite the significant recovery, the municipal tourism sector may not meet its target of receiving between one and 1.2 million visitors in 2022, according to experts, who added that Hanoi should organize large-scale tourism events soon to get closer to the previously set target.
According to the Hanoi Department of Tourism, it will organize new tourism programs and cultural and entertainment events to attract more tourists to the capital until the end of the year.
The department has already developed a plan for large-scale cultural and tourism events in the fourth quarter of 2022, including ‘Hanoi Golf Tourism Week 2022’, ‘Hanoi Ao Dai Festival’, and ‘Hanoi Tourism Ambassadors and Song Contest’.
Hanoi focuses on developing inter-provincial services to attract international visitors, including a religious tour from the Perfume Pagoda in Hanoi to Tam Chuc Pagoda in Ha Nam Province and then to Bai Dinh Religious Tourism Complex in Ninh Binh Province. The city also opens tours from Hanoi to the mountainous provinces of Lai Chau, Ha Giang, Hoa Binh and Son La provinces.
Attracting high-spending travelers
| Hanoi golfer Duong Thu Huong. Photo: Vietnam Golf Community |
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According to Nguyen Ngoc My, VABIS Group chairman, it took Hanoi only seven months to achieve the expected total revenue of around VND30 trillion or US$1.25 billion.
“To break through and accelerate in the coming time, Hanoi needs to develop unique and appealing tourism services, focusing on the city’s strengths such as cultural tourism, experiential tourism, sports tourism, MICE tourism or golf tourism,” he said.
VABIS Group owns 15 companies headquartered in Vietnam, Laos, and Australia, operating in trade, overseas investment, tourism and entertainment.
According to My, quite a few local and international travelers are passionate about horse racing, so Vietnam may join the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI) and the Asian Equestrian Federation (AEF), competing in SEA Games and the Asian Games (Asiad). If allowed, he will spend his money to send athletes abroad and import horses for training in preparation for regional tournaments and even the Olympics.
Currently, My owns a racecourse, a horse training center, a thoroughbred horse breeding farm, a veterinary isolation area, a thoroughbred horse registry management software, a polo field, a horse show and hurdling ground, and a cross-country course meeting international competition standards.
Equestrian sports have been included in the official competition system of the Olympic Games since 1912, of Asiad since 1982 and of the SEA Games since 1983. Currently, AEF has 35 member states, including eight out of 11 Southeast Asian countries, except Vietnam, Laos and Timor-Leste.
| The Kings’ Island Golf Course in Dong Mo Commune, Son Tay Town, Hanoi. Photo: Vietnam Golf Community |
According to the vice president of the Vietnam Golf Tourism Association, Pham Thanh Tri, the 2022 Hanoi Golf Tourism Week, to be held in October, promises to be a new potential tourism offer for Hanoi.
“This event will welcome not only local and international golfers from Singapore, Malaysia and Korea but also their families, friends and fans,” he said.
“The event will attract high-end tourists, so it will help spread Hanoi’s luxury tourism and entertainment services to foreign travellers,” he added.
According to Hieu, golf tourism is a kind of high-end sports tourism in which foreign visitors can combine golfing with scenery exploration and relaxation. It can help attract luxury tourists from Korea, Japan, the US and Europe to Hanoi, thus increasing the capital’s tourism revenue.
According to the World Travel Award, golf tourists can spend six times more than ordinary visitors.
“Hanoi tourism needs to make more efforts to turn the city into an opulent destination for the demanding segment of tourists,” said World Travel Awards President Graham Cooke at a meeting with the Director of the municipal Tourism Department Dang Huong Giang on Hanoi Golf Tourism Week 2022 last month in Hanoi.
Hanoi is home to seven high-class golf courses, which have received numerous compliments from golfers, including Long Bien Golf Course, Kings’ Island Golf Course, Van Tri Golf Club, Legend Hill Golf Resort, and Hanoi Golf Club, among others.
The Hanoi Golf Tourism Week 2022, jointly held by the Vietnam Golf Tourism Association, the Hanoi Department of Tourism and the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports, aims to attract expat golfers living in Vietnam as international and domestic golfers.
