A foreign visitor to the Hanoi Tourism Gift Festival 2022 that took place from April 29 to May 1. (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – Hanoi is
holding a myriad of events and tours to capitalise on the ongoing 31st Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games 31) to popularise images of the capital and Vietnam
as a whole among international friends.
The municipal Tourism
Department said it has ordered management boards of local destinations, accommodation
establishments, and travel companies to develop and launch new and special
tourism products on this occasion, including a cycling tour of the Bat Trang
ancient pottery village, night services on Son Tay and Trinh Cong Son pedestrian
streets, night tours of the Thang Long
Imperial Citadel and Hoa Lo Prison, a double-deck bus city tour, and a
tour for visitors to experience Southeast Asian cultures at the Vietnam Museum
of Ethnology.
Some prestigious
travel companies such as Hanoitourist, Vietfoot Travel, LUX Travel, VI Travel,
and Vietravel have debuted dozens of tours in which travellers can enjoy famous
scenic landscapes and dishes of the capital and neighbouring localities.
A series
of activities have been organised before SEA Games 31 and planned to take place
during and after the region’s biggest sporting event.
Kicking
off those activities, the Tourism Department held the “Get on Hanoi 2022” in
late March, a highlight of which is a hot air balloon festival. This programme
was followed by the Friendship Journey in Quoc Oai district, the Tourism Gift
Festival in the pedestrian zone around Hoan Kiem Lake, the Bat Trang Tourism
Week, the launch of the Son Tay Tourism Year and the Son Tay Ancient Citadel
pedestrian street, the opening ceremony of the Saint Giong Festival, and the
Love Festival in Thuong Tin district.
On this
occasion, the Hanoi Centre for Investment, Trade, and Tourism Promotion will
organise a tourism festival at the Hoan Kiem Lake pedestrian zone on May 13 –
15 and a craft village food and tourism festival on Le Quang Dao street in Nam
Tu Liem district from May 19 to 23.
Communications
have also been increased with the production of publications and gifts to
introduce local tourism such as reprinting 3,500 tourism maps and 4,000 copies
of a book on Hanoi.
A flashmob performance at the Hanoi Tourism Gift Festival 2022. (Photo: VNA)
The Tourism
Department has been coordinating with the Vietnam Television and the Hanoi
Television and Radio Station to produce and broadcast a tourism promotion
programme titled “Hanoi – Den de yeu” (Hanoi – Come to love) in two phases, from
April to August and from September to December this year.
It is also
working with CNN International to make and broadcast a video clip on local
tourism with the presence of the SEA Games 31 logo. Efforts are also being made
to increase introducing the city to international friends via tourism websites
and social networks.
To gear up
personnel for the Games, the Tourism Department has opened training courses for
the cadres in charge of culture and tourism of the localities hosting
competitions, travel businesses, and the 14 hotels accommodating the Games
participating delegations, it noted.
For 2022,
Hanoi looks to attract 9 – 10 million visitors, including 1.2 – 2 million
foreigners. It targets around 3.2 million tourist arrivals in the second
quarter of this year, including 150,000 – 200,000 foreigners.
The
capital city welcomed about 2.8 million domestic visitors in the first quarter,
an increase of 45.3 percent compared to the same period last year.
Themed “For a Stronger
Southeast Asia”, SEA Games 31 will take place in Hanoi and 11 nearby localities
from May 12 to 23.
The biennial event was initially
slated for late December but delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is the second time
Vietnam has hosted a SEA Games, after the first in 2003./.
