Thua Thien – Hue (VNA) – The tourism industry of the central province of Thua Thien - Hue continued to regain recovery momentum and high growth in the first half of 2023, ranking 11th among 63 provinces and cities in terms of total revenue.

During the reviewed period, the province served 1.6 million tourists, 65% of them are domestic visitors, raking in nearly 3.5 trillion VND (149.9million USD), up 148% year-on-year.

Thua Thien – Hue saw stable growth in the number of international tourists,especially from the traditional markets such as Thailand and the Republic of Korea(RoK).

It also recorded arecovery in the number of tourist arrivals from European markets such as France, Germany, and the UK.Meanwhile, the numbers of visitors from new and potential markets such asMalaysia, the US, and Australia accounted for a large proportion of the total internationalholidaymakers to the province.

Thua Thien - Hue is readyto welcome potential segments of visitors from India or Muslim countriesthrough direct flights in the near future.

Director of the provincialDepartment of Tourism Nguyen Van Phuc attributed the province's tourism recovery tothe effectiveness of tourism promotion programmes in recent times.

Businesses have madecreative efforts to diversify tourism products, focusing on community-basedtourism; and maritime, health and agriculture tourism.

A number of hotels andresorts in Thua Thien - Hue have received positive reviews and high ratings frominternational tourism organisations.

In particular, Huecity was named in the top 10 in the “best cities”category at the Luxury Awards Asia Pacific 2023 held by US travel magazineTravel Leisure.

Vice Chairwoman of the ThuaThien – Hue Tourism Association Nguyen Hoang Thuy Vy said the above-mentioned resultsare achieved thanks to the long-term efforts and well-prepared investment strategy ofthe local tourism industry.

There remains potentialfor Thua Thien – Hue to welcome more international holidaymakers, she said,noting that investment in developing infrastructure will be a “springboard"for local tourism to make breakthroughs.

Thua Thien – Hue aimsto develop various services, with tourism will be a spearhead economic sector.

The Ministry ofCulture, Sports and Tourism has recently launched a project to promote night-time services to diversify Vietnam's tourism products.

Thua Thien - Hue was selected as one of the localities to build atleast one model of night-time tourism, toward forming a separate night-time entertainment complex. Night-time tourism models have been exploited byHue city in recent years.

According to Vy, Thua Thien - Hue possesses many advantages interms of cultural heritage which has been honoured by UNESCO, along with thediversity of landscapes of rivers, mountains, sea and lagoons.

Vy said that it is necessary to spend more investment on developing specialproducts to fully tap the locality’s tourism potential, towards promoting sustainabletourism development, affirming its position on the tourist map of Vietnam./.