Vietnam seeking to diversify sports tourism experiences
Vietnam boasts a lot of advantages to develop sports tourism and is taking measures to promote this type of tourism - one of the fastest growing segments in the industry, with an estimated value of about 800 billion USD globally.
Bicycle tour exploring Ninh Binh province (Photo: nhandan.vn)
Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam boasts a lot of advantages to develop sportstourism and is taking measures to promote this type of tourism - one of thefastest growing segments in the industry, with an estimated value ofabout 800 billion USD globally.
Recently, more and more sports clubs havebeen established, and tournaments organised, attracting a large number of bothdomestic and foreign sports lovers.
Prominent among them are VnExpress AmazingMarathon, Ha Long Heritage Marathon, Da Lat Ultra Trail, Hoi An InternationalMarathon, and paragliding festival “Fly over the golden season”.
These sports activities have created aspecial "catalyst" that helps enhance the image recognition andcompetitiveness of local tourism.
Nguyen Cong Hoan, General Director ofFlamingo Redtours which has successfully organised many sports tours takingtourists to watch major football tournaments such as Southeast Asian (SEA)Games and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup, said that currently, travelcompanies are exploiting three popular forms of sports tours: those for tourists to cheer and watch tournaments such as football and tennis; those for participants in sports activities such as golf, marathonand trekking; and those with sports activities for organisations,agencies and businesses.
Paragliding festival “Fly over the golden season” (Photo: VNA)
According to experts, to turn sportstourism into a key product, it is important to have thorough research andlong-term orientations to build and upgrade infrastructure, and improve thetransport system and specific technical facilities in a more professionaland modern direction so as to meet requirements of different forms of sportstourism.
It is also necessary to have an early andmethodical promotion strategy as well as dynamism to increase opportunities tohost international events.
Nowadays, tourists in general and sportstourists in particular appreciate different experiences when participating in tours.Therefore, Director of Vietfoot Travel Pham Duy Nghia said that in addition toproviding quality services and ensuring safety, sports tourism products alsoneed to bring new experiences to visitors./.
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Bicycle tour exploring Ninh Binh province (Photo: nhandan.vn) 
Paragliding festival “Fly over the golden season” (Photo: VNA) 
