Hue targets 42 million foreign tourists in 2018

Foreign tourists comprised half of the total visitors to Hue, a UNESCO world heritage site, famous for its imperial architecture and culture.

Mausoleum of Khai Dinh King from the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945), a tourist attraction in Hue. Photo: vietnamnews.vn

The highest number of foreign tourists – 26 percent of the total – was from the Republic of Korea. Visitors from France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany and Thailand had the second to sixth highest percentages, respectively.

Total revenue from tourism last year was USD 155 million.

According to the local Tourism Department, the tourism sector made attempts to diversify its products by adding tour programs to lagoons and rural areas and introducing destinations outside the UNESCO heritage system.

The sector expects to receive 42 million visitors this year, half of them foreign tourists.

To achieve this target, the department called for private investment to develop standard restaurants that could accommodate up to 2,000 customers at the same time. It also requested local authorities to introduce direct flights from Hue to countries with the highest proportion of tourists to the city, including Japan, the RoK and Thailand.

It also suggested local authorities to improve the service quality and behavior of both public agencies and civil facilities towards tourists.

Hue is considered a top tourism hub in the country. But tourism in the city has not witnessed consistent development in the past few years, mainly due to the narrow mindset towards tourism management by local authorities. It was only last year that local authorities formed a separate tourism department with qualified personnel to aid growth in the sector.

Source: VNA