Thua Thien-Hue (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has advised the centralprovince of Thua Thien-Hue to turn tourism into a spearhead sector to spur itseconomic development by tapping historical and cultural heritage of its formerimperial Hue city.

The leader had a working session with the provincial authorities on January 2during his working visit to the locality.

Hue itself should focus on tourism, services and economic linkages as itsbreakthrough fields, he said, asking it to use information technology intensivelyin managing heritage and developing tourism.

The city needs todevelop a professional tourism ecosystem that can work to entice visitors tostay in the city longer as their longer stay generates more incomes, hereasoned.

It should speed up the mobilization of all resources, especially from the privatesector to invest in transport, tourism, healthcare, industry, and others whilepaying greater attention to protecting the ecology, culture and security todeserve its status as the festival city, he noted.

ThePM asked the province to devise a concrete action plan to implement resolutionsof the Party Central Committee, especially the Government’s Resolution No.01under the motto “discipline, uprightness, action, creativity, and efficiency”.

Hue, which was the imperialcapital of Vietnam for hundreds of years, is home to five heritages recognisedby UNESCO, namely the Hue ancient citadel relic complex – a World CulturalHeritage site; Nha Nhac (Hue royal court music)- an intangible cultural heritageitem; Nguyen Dynasty’s wood blocks – a documentary heritage item; NguyenDynasty’s Chau ban (royal administrative documents) – part of the Asia-PacificRegister of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme; and literature on Hue royalarchitecture - a documentary heritage.

In 2017, the total budget collection in Huereached 6.772 trillion VND (297.96 million USD). The total number of touristarrivals to the ancient imperial city rose 16 percent to 3.8 million. However,the growth has yet to match its potential.

Participants pointed out the city’s limitationssuch as low competitive tourism products, small travel agencies, low capacityof Phu Bai airport, and unattractive, small and short-day tourism events.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism NguyenNgoc Thien suggested building modern art performance centres and malls thatkeep visitors to stay longer and spend more in the city.

Meanwhile, Minister-Chairman of the GovernmentOffice Mai Tien Dung said Thua Thien- Hue needs to hire foreign consultants to devisea local tourism master plan and add more new tourism products.

On the occasion, he made a fact-finding tour to the province’s public administrativecentre and visited and presented gifts to Heroic Mothers Nguyen Thi Huong andNguyen Thi Hiep.-VNA