Hanoi (VNA) - ⛦Major cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang always have high population densities. During the week, people are busy in the reels of their work and many of them need to go on holidays and short-term tourism to refresh at weekend.

This is an opportunity to develop weekend tourism in suburbs.

Demand for short trip                                                                       

Weekends are a time when families take a break after a week of hard work. Therefore, the demand for entertainment at the weekend has been increasing. Soc Son, Tam Dao, Ba Vi (Hanoi), Dai Lai (Vinh Phuc), Mai Chau (Hoa Binh), Trang An (Ninh Binh) are weekend destinations that attract quite a lot of Hanoi residents. Spending less time on the move, people easily enjoy living moments without high cost. Located adjacent to Hanoi, with a travel time of only 45 minutes, Hoa Binh is a favorite destination of the city dwellers on holidays or weekends. Hoa Binh province currently has 296 cultural and historical sites, more than 70 caves containing thousand-year archaeological relics. Besides, the homestay service has been proving its attraction to the visitors who love to experience. In the South, provinces in key economic regions such as Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau with the advantage of bordering Ho Chi Minh City, are also very advantageous to strongly develop weekend travel products. According to Director of the Binh Duong Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Khoa Hai, resort tourism, eco-tourism on weekends are considered as the main tourism products of the province. In the province, there are many attractive destinations, suitable for weekend holidays such as Lai Thieu garden (Thuan An district), Cau-Ho Dau Tieng eco-tourism area (Dau Tieng district). Dong Nai province is also assessed to have great potential for developing a form of weekend tourism. Tourism resources of the province are very diverse with 21 tourist areas. In particular, Cat Tien National Park has been planned to be a national tourist destination.

Flexible solutions

In order to develop the type of weekend tourism, each locality needs to have tourism products and services to meet the needs of tourists. According to many experts, despite having advantages of being near Hanoi, and convenient traffic, tourism products of Vinh Phuc province are still not diverse. In order to focus on developing tourism, Vinh Phuc province strives to become a tourism center of the Northern region by 2020, attracting 50,000 international visitors and 6.5 million domestic tourists, with a turnover of 2,600 billion VND. Lessons learned from a number of countries with strong development in tourism show that, before making a plan, authorities and tourism firms often undergo a thorough study of the market as well as tourist tastes. Binh Duong province owns many craft villages like ceramics, lacquer paintings, famous glass paintings. However, some factory owners in the craft villages share that their products are produced mainly on orders, exported to foreign countries rather than being sold in tourist areas. This situation is limiting opportunities for tourists to access tourism products. Therefore, Binh Duong needs to enhance the exploitation of a variety of tourism products, including focusing on souvenirs from traditional craft villages to bring a new, non-monotonous and boring feeling to tourists. Experts also note that localities with strengths to develop this type of tourism need to pay more attention to forms of promotion such as media, social networks./.