Make visitors stay longer, Huế told

Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc (centre) visits the Singapore-invested Laguna resort, located in Lăng Cô beach town in the central province of Thừa Thiên-Huế yesterday. - VNA/VNS Photo Thống Nhất

In a working session held with local authorities in the former imperial city of Huế, he said tourism, services and economic linkages can serve as breakthrough growth areas for the provincial capital.

He advised the province to use information technology (IT) intensively in managing its precious heritages and developing tourism.

The city needs to develop a professional tourism ecosystem that will induce visitors to stay longer, and hence generate more income, the PM said.

It should step up mobilisation of all resources, especially from the private sector, to invest in transport, tourism, healthcare, industry, and other sectors while paying greater attention to protecting the environment and its culture, and maintaining security to deserve its status as the nation’s festival city, he added.

Phúc also asked the province to devise a concrete action plan to implement resolutions of the Party Central Committee, especially upholding the motto of “discipline, uprightness, action, creativity, and efficiency.”

The PM later visited the province’s public administrative centre and personally presented gifts to Heroic Mothers Nguyễn Thị Hương and Nguyễn Thị Hiệp.

Huế, imperial capital of Viet Nam for hundreds of years, is home to five heritages recognised by UNESCO: the ancient citadel relic complex – a World Cultural Heritage site; Nhã Nhạc (Huế royal court music)- an intangible cultural heritage item; Nguyễn Dynasty’s wood blocks – a documentary heritage item; Nguyễn Dynasty’s Châu bản (royal administrative documents) – part of the Asia-Pacific Register of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme; and literature on Huế royal architecture - a documentary heritage.

While tourist arrivals to the city rose 16 per cent year-on-year to 3.8 million last year, this growth has yet to match the city’s and province’s tourism potential, officials said at the meeting.

They said the city lacked competitive tourism products, its travel agencies were very small, the Phú Bài airport was of small capacity, and many tourism events were unattractive, small and short.

Nguyễn Ngọc Thiện, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, suggested that local authorities consider building modern art performance centres and malls as incentives for visitors to stay longer and spend more in the city.

Minister and Chairman of the Government Office, Mai Tiến Dũng, said Thừa Thiên-Huế needs to hire foreign consultants to devise a local tourism masterplan and add more new tourism products.