Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Resort tourism in Hanoi’s suburbs and neighbouring areas has seenpotential for higher growth, experts said.

Estimates from the General Statistics Office showed that with the travel timeof around one and a half hours to suburbs, middle-income people in Hanoi arelikely to take 20 to 30 short-breaks each year.

However, the number of resorts which are given adequate investment in Hanoisuburban areas and neighbouring provinces such as Vinh Phuc, Phu Tho, Hoa Binhand Ninh Binh has been limited. Others include Flamingo Dai Lai, Melia Ba Vi,Mai Chau Ecolodge, Serena Resort Kim Boi and Emeralda Ninh Binh.

Speaking at the talk on tourism development in Hanoi’s hinterland: situationand prospects, held on November 21, Nguyen Manh Than, Chairman of the HanoiTourism Association, said authorities, community and businesses shouldcooperate to develop sustainable tourism models in the capital’s suburbanareas.

“We acknowledge that in some localities, authorities have not supported firmsdeveloping the tourism as well as not having specific actions and policies toimprove local people’s awareness on the development of this kind oftourism,” Than said.

He added that among 10 criteria to evaluate provincial competitiveness index(PCI) released by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, support fromlocal authorities has been a key issue to help enterprises improve theircompetitiveness.

Especially, the issue of progress and opportunities is extremely important forfirms. It was the reason that State agencies should help businesses quicklyresolve administrative procedures and remove barriers which could limit theirdevelopment.

From a view of investors, Nguyen Thanh Trung, deputy general director of ArchiInvestment Joint Stock Company, said the market would see strong andsustainable development.

Trung said there is around 4.5 million people in the Hanoi capital region whowant to go on breaks around six times each year.

Therefore, it would have up to 25 to 30 million tourist arrivals a year.

“This is a huge market and no competition. Resort developers should do theirjobs well and visitors would come,” he said.

He added that the resort tourism market in the suburbs would share the overloadin the capital.

“In the future, Hanoi would welcome nearly 30 million tourist arrivals while ithas 1,200 hotel rooms in the past five years,” he said.

Another advantage, he said, was the easy access to suburban areas thanks to newroads shortening distance from the city’s centre to those areas.

Amorn Harnkham, regional director of Thailand International College ofHospitality Education said Hanoi has advantages of connections with otherregions.

Hanoi would become one of best destinations for resort tourism in suburbs inAsia, he said.

Ngoc Khanh, general director of H&K Hospitality said investors shouldunderstand markets and cooperate with hotel and resort management companies tohave real knowledge in the industry. In addition, authorities should havespecific policies and regulations in terms of taxes, safety and environmentalhygiene to facilitate investors.

“In reality, investors said administrative procedures have been troublesome tobusinesses. Investors have to work with different departments and offices toresolve an issue. We expected that local authorities would give more supportsto firms in developing projects under the model,” Khanh said.-VNS/VNA