Good news for the 2017 tourist season

(Baonghean) - In the first days of the new year, many tourist groups have come to Nghe An to experience the traditional Tet atmosphere and participate in attractive tours. This is also a positive signal for Nghe An tourism in 2017, in which the main goal is to expand the market and develop more tours and tourist routes in the province...

Impressions of Vietnamese Tet

Arriving in Vinh city in the first days of 2017, the Thai delegation from Uponratthani province was very surprised to be welcomed with a special lion dance. Witnessing the warm and welcoming atmosphere imbued with Vietnamese culture, Mr. Somsak excitedly said: "I am very happy to come to Vietnam during the traditional Tet holiday. Vietnamese Tet is very different from Tet in Thailand, especially in the cold weather like these days."

Tourists experience traditional Tet in Nghe An. Photo: My Ha

The group of tourists from the Netherlands had a wonderful experience when attending a Vietnamese Tet program organized by Nghe An Department of Tourism at Kim Lien Hotel. The impression was that, although it was only organized in a very small space, here, they fully felt the most unique customs of the traditional Vietnamese Tet. One of the interesting parts was watching the hotel chef wrap Chung cake and enjoying the flavor of the national cake.

During the Vietnamese Tet experience program, foreign delegations also experienced the art of writing calligraphy and giving New Year's greetings, and listened to Nghe Tinh folk songs. Sharing his joy, Mr. Janatham said: "Although we only had a short stay in Nghe An, you gave us many interesting and meaningful activities. Through that, we were able to have a very new perspective on Vietnam."

This year's Vietnamese Tet program was organized by Nghe An Department of Tourism with the main purpose of promoting Vietnamese culture and helping tourists preserve beautiful moments of Vietnamese Tet. Responding to this program, most of the large hotels in Vinh city and Cua Lo town have built many attractive and interesting Tet programs. In addition to the main activities such as lion dance, watching Chung cake and Tet cake wrapping, many units also include Vi and Giam folk songs in the Tet program, building menus with Tet flavor.

Mr. Vo An Huy - Deputy Director of Kim Lien Hotel said: Although it was a holiday, the number of guests coming to register at our hotel was quite large, most of whom were foreign guests. We noticed that after experiencing the Vietnamese Tet programs, all foreign guests were very excited and delighted.

Many joyful activities to welcome the Spring Festival 2017 to serve the traditional New Year welcome tourists this time. Photo: My Ha

The Vietnamese Tet program is also one of the outstanding activities of Nghe An Tourism in Spring 2017. Through the first days of the new year, it can be seen that the efficiency is quite high when the number of visitors staying and registering for tours has increased significantly; with more than 80,000 visitors staying, an increase of 121% over the same period.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh An - Deputy Director of the Department of Tourism said: Although it is just a small slice, we hope to leave many good impressions for tourists in the first days of the new year coming to Nghe An. From there, it also contributes to promoting the image of Nghe An, the image of Vietnam to friends around the world.

Diversify types of tourism

At the end of 2016, due to many objective difficulties, the total number of visitors staying in the province only reached 3.22 million, equal to 87% compared to 2015, the total revenue from tourism services in the province reached 2,233 billion VND, reaching 77% of the plan. However, the number of international visitors increased by 12% compared to 2015, with nearly 73,000 arrivals. This is the result after a year of promoting and cooperating in tourism development being strengthened in both scale and frequency.

However, looking at the results of Nghe An tourism, there are still limitations. That is, Nghe An travel agencies still mainly focus on exploiting the source of tourists from Nghe An to visit domestic and foreign provinces, but pay little attention to exploiting and bringing tourists from other provinces and countries to visit tourist attractions in the province. The situation of opportunistic business still occurs.

Regarding foreign visitors, although Nghe An is a province with a lot of potential, it has not been fully exploited. Therefore, most foreign visitors only consider Nghe An as a stopover and accommodation, not a sightseeing or tourist destination. That makes tourism sustainability low and unstable. Tourists have not found outstanding and unique tourism products for long-term stays...

From the above shortcomings, Nghe An Tourism Department has proposed many solutions for 2017 such as focusing on promoting the domestic tourist market to quickly restore the tourism situation in coastal areas with appropriate stimulus programs. At the same time, continue to implement cooperation activities to develop tourism with localities and large tourism enterprises nationwide according to the signed minutes. Continue to promote the exploitation of traditional markets such as Thailand, Laos, and gradually expand markets in countries such as Korea, Japan, Singapore...

Tourists experience asking for calligraphy at the beginning of the year in Nghe An on the occasion of the traditional Dinh Dau New Year 2017. Photo: My Ha

On the side of the Provincial Tourism Promotion Center, it has organized consultation and surveys to build a number of intra-provincial tourism routes along National Highway 7, National Highway 48 and Ho Chi Minh Road... The community tourism model has initially had positive changes. In particular, the project to exploit and develop Pu Mat National Park eco-tourism in association with the community tourism model and the culture of ethnic groups in the region in association with the Project to diversify livelihoods based on heritage tourism in a number of villages and hamlets in Con Cuong and Nam Dan districts, supported and provided technical advice by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA); diversifying and improving the quality of tourism and entertainment services; planning and reorganizing night markets and streets specializing in trading goods and services for tourists.

Hopefully, the above innovations will bring positive signals to Nghe An tourism in 2017. From there, helping Nghe An gradually develop tourism and become an attractive destination not only for domestic tourists but also for international friends.

My Ha