Hanoi's tourism leaning towards meetings industry boost

With Hanoi aiming to greet 22 million visitors this year, including three million foreigners, authorities and travel groups hope to latch onto the increasingly popular events and meetings industry to bump up numbers.

Dang Huong Giang, director of the Hanoi Department of Tourism, noted that to reach the set target, which would be a rise of almost 18 per cent on-year, the city's tourism strategy will focus on developing specific tours involving destinations in Hanoi’s central and suburban areas, as well as several nearby localities with major attractions such as Ha Nam and Ninh Binh.

The department will also step up efforts to promote waterway and golf tourism, with meetings and events deemed the ace factor to drive tourism growth in the city, Giang said.

Events industry tours are also regarded as entailing faster growth compared to conventional tours.

For instance, Hanoi Daewoo's income from corporate events contributed to nearly half of the 5-star hotel’s total revenues for last year.

Many industry experts assume that despite being frozen in recent years, there is still ample room for the city to promote meetings-related tourism.

Nguyen Duc Anh, chairman of the MICE Vietnam Tourism Club, said that it is necessary to boost added values to related tours, creating distinction for Vietnam's business tourism.

"For instance, after joining events, visitors might be given the chance to discover Hanoi’s distinct food dishes, visit famous sites, or go to a concert or other cultural events," Anh said.

Echoing this mindset, Phung Quang Hung, deputy chairman of the Vietnam Society of Travel Agents, assumed that with the huge economic benefits of events industry tourism, Hanoi needs to do its utmost to rise into a destination in this area, with the same reputation as Hong Kong or Singapore.

To reach this goal, it is a must for the city to craft distinct products and boost exposure in foreign markets, as well as increase cooperation from different agencies, sectors, and businesses.

"However, the city lacks infrastructure to host events for several thousand participants, periodical large-scale art performances, sports and cultural events, and doesn’t have a specific communication strategy for business tourism promotion," Hung said.

As a remedy to hosting issues, Duc from MICE Vietnam Tourism Club suggested Hanoi has in place a flexible scheme allowing the use of open spaces like parks and museums to host tours.

“We once used Thong Nhat Park and the National Economics University for holding events very successfully," Duc said. "Using sites like these, embedded with Hanoi's distinct cultural values, would help institute the capital as an alluring destination.”

According to Hanoi Department of Tourism, the capital greeted 18.7 million visitors in 2022, almost double the projection.

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