Quang Ninh (VNA) - Bestowed with beautiful landscapes and abundanthistoric and cultural relic sites, the northeastern province of Quang Ninh isworking to promote sustainable tourism development.

In a bid to make tourism a spearhead economic sector with large contribution tolocal gross domestic products (GDP), the province is working to improvebusiness climate, develop tourism infrastructure, build new tourism productsand better service quality.

Besides cultural tours of heritages, festivals and eco-tourism areas, theprovince is calling for investment in large-scale and high-quality tourismprojects.

Since the end of 2013, Quang Ninh has attracted more than 100 projects with totalinvestment capital of more than 5.5 billion USD, nearly half of which waspoured into Ha Long city, mainly the tourism sector.

Besides Vietnamese investors like Tuan Chau, Vingroup, Sun Group and FLC, QuangNinh also saw the presence of billion-dollar projects of giants from the US,China, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.

The province has a coastline of more than 250 kilometres and some 2,000 isletswhich account for two-thirds of the total in Vietnam.

The spectacularstretch of coast connects the UNESCO-recognised World Heritage Site of Ha LongBay with majestic natural scenery, Bai Tu Long Bay, Van Don and Co To islandsand Tra Co beach with Cat Ba National Park in the northern port city of HaiPhong.

Along with therenowned Ha Long Bay, Quan Lan, Minh Chau, Ngoc Vung, Dai beaches in Van Donisland district and Tra Co and Vinh Thuc in Mong Cai city have beenincreasingly attractive to tourists thanks to their breathtaking seas and coralreefs.

The locality also boasts huge potential for developing spiritual-culturaltourism as it houses over 600 historic and cultural relic sites.

Four tourism hubs have been formed, including Ha Long (landscapes, culture andentertainment), Mong Cai-Tra Co (marine tourism integrated with tradeactivities), Van Don- Co To (spiritual, coastal and entertainment tourism) andUong Bi-Dong Trieu –Quang Yen (spiritual-cultural tourism).

Meanwhile, Binh Lieu, Hai Ha and Cam Pha are also alluring both domestic andforeign tourists.

Quang Ninh has directed departments and investors to open air routes from/to VanDon international airport, which is expected to be put into operation in April2018.

The construction of the airport began in 2015 under the build-operate-transferform with total investment of nearly 7.5 trillion VND (330 million USD) by SunGroup. The province also invested 700 billion VND (30.8 million USD) in landclearance.

Quang Ninh set a target of welcoming 15 million tourists, comprising 7 millionforeigners, and earning 30 trillion -40 trillion VND (1.3 billion -1.76 billionUSD) in tourism revenue by 2020 while tourism activities are expected tocontribute 10-15 percent of local budget income. The sector will provide jobsfor some 130,000 local labourers.

In 2016, the province received 8.3 million tourist arrivals, a year-on-yearincrease of seven percent, raking in over 13 trillion VND (571 million USD) inrevenue, up 23 percent, according to the provincial Department of Tourism. -VNA