Thanh Hoa, renowned for its Dong Son culture, has province has been selected to host the 2015 National Tourism Year with the theme ‘Connecting World Heritage’, Nhan Dan newspaper reported.

The opening week for National Tourism Year-Thanh Hoa 2015 is taking place in Thanh Hoa from April 3rd-10th, and is being marked with 10 events, which include a requiem for war martyrs; the 50th anniversary of the Ham Rong Victory; the announcement of the Ma River tour; and the Festival of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Vietnam recognized by UNESCO.

Earlier, Thanh Hoa presented master plans on developing tourism in the province until 2020 with a vision to 2030 to improve the quality of tourism, the paper said.

Part of the Ho Dynasty Citadel. Photo: dulichvietnam.com.vn

Accordingly, Thanh Hoa has completed 11 general projects and 17 particular projects on upgrading tourism sites and connecting tourism services.

The province has embarked on a drive to improve its business and investment climate, strengthening investment, extending relations, and seeking investments to upgrade its tourism infrastructure. The province has attracted 66 tourism projects with total registered capital of VND 23.28 trillion— thirty of them are already licensed and under construction.

Additionally, the province has focused on upgrading cultural sites, historical sites and main tourist attractions such as the Ho Dynasty Citadel World Cultural Heritage, the Special National Site of Lam Kinh, the Cam Luong fish stream tourist site, Ba Trieu Temple, and exploiting sea tourism potential.

After implementing the resolution of the party committee of Sam Son town on building a tourism brand name, the tourism service’s quality in Sam Son beach has been improved. Along the 102-kilometre coastline of Thanh Hoa province, Hai Hoa tourism zone in Tinh Gia district, Hai Tien tourism zone in Hoang Hoa, and Tien Trang tourism zone in Quang Xuong district have also contributed to awakening Thanh Hoa’s tourism potential.

Over the last five years, Thanh Hoa has worked to preserve around 200 relics at a total expense of VND 400 billion (USD 18.6 million). The quality of human resources in the tourism industry has gradually improved. The province currently has 16,000 people working in the industry, 72 percent of whom are well-trained. Thanh Hoa has around 672 accommodations offering 14,000 rooms.

The province recorded over 482,000 tourists in 2001 with 101 billion in tourism revenue. The figure rose to 4.5 million tourists in 2014, with VND 2 trillion in tourism revenue.

Located in the middle of Ninh Binh province and Nghe An province, Thanh Hoa has favourable conditions for developing tourism.

Hosting the 2015 National Tourism Year with the theme ‘Connecting World Heritage’ affirmed Thanh Hoa authorities and local people’s goal of building the province to become one of Vietnam’s major tourism areas.

In the 2015 National Tourism Year, 12 events are expected to be organised under the instruction of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, along with 12 others by Thanh Hoa province. The highlights of the events are the opening and closing ceremonies for the national tourism year in March and December, in addition to the 50th anniversary ceremony of the Ham Rong victory.

The other 15 cities and provinces with world heritage sites will also organize events as part of the national program including Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City, and the provinces of Phu Tho, Quang Ninh, Bac Giang, Bac Ninh, Ninh Binh, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Thua Thien Hue, Quang Nam, Gia Lai and Lam Dong.

The province hopes to turn tourism into a key economic sector by 2020 and draw as many as 650,000 international visitors and 17 million domestic travellers by 2030. The province is focusing on exploiting traditional values, calling for domestic and foreign investment, and cooperating with other provinces to preserve and promote heritages, as well as ensuring social security.

According to Pham Duy Phuong, Director of the Thanh Hoa provincial Department of Culture, Sports, the province will also focus on preserving historical sites, tourism attractions and ancient villages, promoting the value of intangible cultural heritages; developing tourism products and cooperating with other provinces in developing Vietnam’s tourism industry.

Thanh Hoa has 1,535 historical and cultural sites, 145 of the sites are national sites. The Ho Dynasty Citadel, one of its most attractive destinations, was recognized by UNESCO as a world cultural heritage site in 2011. Along with the tourism destinations, Thanh Hoa has nearly 200 traditional festivals and unique cultural treasures.

Source: VNA