Thua Thien-Hue (VNA) – The central and Central Highlandsregions have favourable conditions to develop various types of tourism such asresort, heritage, culture, sea and island, mountain and cave exploration, PrimeMinister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said at a conference held in the central province ofThua Thien-Hue on February 16.

The event was jointly held by 19 cities and provinces in the regions toseek ways to promote tourism.

PM Phuc said the regions have a lot of potential to develop catering andentertainment services as well as attract investment from finance, banking,insurance, and health sectors.

They are important factors to ensure sustainabletourism development, he said, stressing that the regions should create atourism architecture that reflects the unique features of Vietnam to draw moretourists both at home and abroad.

The government leader noted that Vietnam has granted visa exemptions totourists from 24 countries and territories and conducted online visaapplications for those from 47 nations around the world.

The PM also informed the participants that he had just signed into issuanceof a resolution to apply e-visa for 34 more countries.

The government always listens to the problems that the tourism sector isfacing and will closely work with local authorities to maintain a peacefulenvironment, social order and safety for tourists to Vietnam, he affirmed.

Vietnam will open its sky to welcome more visitors, the PM said, addingthat the country has been upgrading airports and seaports as well as buildinginter-provincial coastal road systems to facilitate tourism development.

At the event, authorities of central provinces granted investment licencesto and signed Memoranda of Understanding on cooperation with businesses todevelop tourism projects in the region.

As a gateway of the East-West economic corridor to the sea, the centraland Central Highlands regions stretch through the trans-Viet and trans-Asiatourism routes. The regions boast numerous eye-catching bays and islands fromThanh Hoa to Binh Thuan provinces.

The regions have a number of world culturalheritage sites and are endowed with the most beautiful beaches. They are alsohome to 47 out of the 54 Vietnamese ethnic groups.

The central and Central Highlands regions servedabout 56 million domestic holidaymakers and 9.5 million foreign tourists out ofthe country’s total 80 million and 15.5 million, respectively.

The regions’ tourism sector earned over 110 trillion VND (4.75 billionUSD) in revenue, making up about 18.75 percent of the country’s total tourismrevenue.-VNA