Standing Deputy PM wants tourism sector to leap in development

In the February 10 morning, the National Administration of Tourism organized in Hanoi a conference to sum up its 2006 performance and launch the work-plan of 2007. Standing Deputy PM Nguyễn Sinh Hùng attended and delivered a key address.

It was reported that in 2006, Vietnam registered 3.6 million international arrivals (increasing 3% against 2005) and 17.5 million domestic tourist travelers, going up by 6.6%. The tourism income reached VND 51,000 billion, including VND 45,600 billion spent by international travelers (US$ 2.85 billion).

The tourism sector has designated 2007 as the Year of Quality Improvement and Administration Reform, whereby the sector is committed to improve the public governance of tourist activities, better tourist services and products, enhance the sector's competitiveness, and perform deep and full integration into the regional and world markets for improvements in terms of scale, speed, cost-efficiency and sustainability.

Addressing the Conference, Deputy PM Nguyễn Sinh Hùng stressed tourism as an economic sector associated with multiple areas as its development is likely to ignite improvements on other respects of economy and life such as infrastructure, post and telecommunication, food hygiene and safety, and particularly people’s awareness of environmental protection, resource preservation and ecological conversation. The Deputy PM called the sector's attention to planning, which should be done well for projects from local to national level on a long-term strategic vision. On investment, he said the range of investment forms should be extended and the model of ownership diversified to engage not only domestic but also foreign investors.

He also talked about staff training and retraining, saying that an ideal tourism service worker should be professionally skilled, fluent in foreign languages, equipped with a pool of cultural knowledge and hospitable.

By Hoàng Nguyên