Hanoi, including travel agencies in the capital, keep receiving prestigious awards from many international organizations, showing the resilience of the capital’s tourism after Covid-19.

 Delegates from Hanoi receive the World’s Leading City Break Destination 2022 Award. Photos: WTA

The Grand Final Gala Ceremony of the 29th World Travel Awards 2022 on November 11 in Muscat, Oman, honored Hanoi as the World’s Leading City Break Destination 2022.

The World Travel Awards (WTA) is considered the “Oscar of the world travel industry”, an annual search for the world’s finest travel and tourism organizations.

This is an important award category in the WTA’s award system, focusing on evaluating criteria related to the attractiveness of short-term resort activities, and tourist experiences in cities around the world, according to the Hanoi Department of Tourism.

Director of the municipal Department of Tourism Dang Huong Giang said the award is essential for Hanoi in the context that Vietnam’s tourism is entirely open to international tourism.

“This is a good opportunity for the capital to promote the image of Hanoi as a “safe – quality – friendly – attractive” destination among domestic and international tourists after Covid-19, affirming its position, image, and brand in the international arena,” he added.

These international recognitions signal the recovery of the tourism industry and promise much progress in the capital’s tourism development in the coming times, Giang stressed.

Earlier in September, the WTA awarded the city and its three hotels as Asia’s Leading Getaway Destination 2022.

VietSense Travel director Nguyen Van Tai said the awards helped affirm each travel agency’s brand and position the Vietnamese tourism brand globally.

This also demonstrates the efforts of Vietnam’s capital and tourism industry to recover and develop gradually, despite current difficulties. It is also a way for Hanoi’s tourism units to vigorously promote the capital’s tourism brand and the image of a friendly, rich, and hospitable Vietnam, Tai added.

The director of the Hanoi Department of Tourism said that following the achievements, the capital’s tourism sector would continue to deploy tasks and solutions to restore tourism activities, including creating new attractive products to keep Hanoi a favorite destination for local and foreign tourists.

 Dang Huong Giang, Director of the Hanoi Department of Tourism, attends the WTA, which is held in September in Ho Chi Minh City.

In the first ten months, Hanoi welcomed about 15.38 million visitors, of whom 14.4 million were domestic tourists. The two figures are five times those registered in the same period of 2021.

Hanoi will take more drastic solutions to meet the goal of welcoming 1-1.2 million international tourists in 2022.

Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Tourism, Nguyen Hong Minh, said: “The city will undertake strong measures in November and December to boost tourism activities.”

Accordingly, the city will hold the Hanoi Ao Dai (traditional long dress) Festival, a contest to select the Hanoi Tourism Ambassador and another to choose the musical theme of the city’s tourism sector, he said.

He underlined the city would also continue fostering critical tourism services such as cultural tourism, sports tourism, meeting-incentive-conference-exhibition (MICE), and experiential tourism.

Cooperation with other provinces will also be strengthened to promote package tours to different localities by organizing festivals and events, he added.

“Travelers will get opportunities to visit craft villages and cultural-historical sites in provinces surrounding Hanoi,” Minh said.