Hanoi (VNA) – Experts gathered at a seminar in Hanoi on November 8 toshare a wide range of solutions to future tourism development in Vietnam.

At the event, Dr. Truong Sy Vinh, Deputy Director of the Institute for TourismDevelopment Research under the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism(VNAT), said the 2017 annual report on Vietnam’s tourism conducted by VNATshowed that tourism contributed 396 trillion VND (nearly 17 billion USD) or 7.9percent of the country’s GDP last year.

Tourism directly creates nearly 2.5 million jobs, accounting for 4.6 percent ofVietnam’s total jobs, according to the World Tourism Council.

The council forecast that international arrivals to Vietnam this year willincrease 22-24 percent and domestic visitors will go up 8-10 percent, whilerevenue from tourism activities will surge 16-18 percent.

In almost all cities and provinces, tourism is the fastest growing economic sectorand makes significant contributions to local economic development, Vinh said.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Dinh, a tourism expert, stressed the importance ofstudying global tourism trends in building a national tourism developmentstrategy.

The strategy should target the development of modern tourism forms andproducts, such as leisure tourism in combination with sightseeing, kayaking, divingand water-skiing; adventure tourism; eco-tourism; community-based tourism;health tourism; and MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions)tourism, he said.

It is necessary to prepare a contingent of high-qualified tourism managers andstaff as well as tour guides, he said, adding that the training must be done bytourism companies with the VNAT support.

Meanwhile, Dr. Nguyen Van Luu, former head of the Training Department under theMinistry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, mentioned the promotion of on-the-spotexports through tourism.

“We need to boost on-the-spot exports by attracting more international touriststo Vietnam, lengthening their stay in the country and increasing their spendingon the basis of developing new products, diversifying and improving the qualityof export products”, he said.

Vietnam should focus on luring visitors from markets in Northeast Asia such as Japan,the Republic of Korea, China, and Taiwan and Hong Kong (China); Southeast Asia;and the Pacific.

It also needs to maintain markets of high-class tourists like Western andEastern Europe and North America, while expanding to new markets such as theMiddle East and India, Luu added.

All ideas shared at the seminar will help the Institute for Tourism DevelopmentResearch to have more accurate and fuller assessments of the role of thetourism industry in the country’s economic development, thus recommending practicaland effective orientations and measures to boost tourism development in thefuture.-VNA