Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam will continue to use flexible measures tostimulate the domestic tourism market as international borders remain shut dueto the global COVID-19 pandemic, a top tourism official has said.

Nguyen Trung Khanh, Chairman of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism,made the statement at a meeting of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sports heldin Hanoi on January 8.

The promotion efforts will be based on the programmes 'Vietnamese going ontours in Vietnam' and 'Vietnam, safe and attractive tourism', Khanh said, asdomestic travel remains the “source of strength” for the tourism sector tocarry on in 2021.

Many localities have organised tourism promotion campaigns – like Da Nang with'Danang Thank You 2020', Thua Thien-Hue with the forum on connecting travel andKhanh Hoa province with a meeting for travel agencies to promote tourism in KhanhHoa and Hanoi.

Tourism authorities and businesses will also be expending more resources topromote tourism on social media and international channels.

In 2021, regional cooperation should be a focus, while localities with newattractions will receive more attention for promotion.

Khanh urged tourism authorities and businesses to prepare for the eventualreopening of international tourism when conditions allow, especially by comingup with new exciting tourism products and promotion campaigns.

In January 2020, the number of foreign tourists to Vietnam reached a recordhigh of 2 million, but with COVID-19 making its way around the world,international tourism virtually came to a halt with the Government's decisionto close the borders in late March.

In all of 2020, total foreign tourist arrivals to Vietnam reached only 3.68million, down 80 percent compared to 2019, while there were 56 million domestictourists, down by 34.1 percent, according to a report delivered by deputyminister of culture, tourism and sports Nguyen Van Hung.

Last year's tourism revenues were estimated at 312 trillion VND, equal to only58.7 percent of the previous year's figure.

Also according to Hung, in 2020, Vietnam was honoured as Asia’s leadingheritage, cultural, and culinary destination at the World Travel Awards 2020,dubbed the travel industry’s Oscars, which helped raise the profile of Vietnamin the market even more.

At the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said despite the pandemic in2020, Vietnam’s tourism had made considerable strides in recent years,evidenced by its sixth place in the top 10 countries with highest tourismgrowth.

Dam said the ministry had managed well the relations between the three aspects– culture, tourism and sports – and to harmonise them into a “vivid, abundant”picture of the country and the Vietnamese people.

With the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Dam said "we have noother choice but to 'ride on the same train'", urging the tourism sectorto seize the opportunities and maximise the application of technology anddigital transformation achievements to enrich tourists’ experience and obtainsustainable development.

Expressing concerns about that fact that the dominating bookingservices/applications in Vietnam are all foreign-based, the Deputy PM askedthat in 2021, the tourism ministry pay more attention to the issue and developa domestic digital application that can be managed by the ministry./.