Red River delta tourism development plan passed

Under the master plan, by 2020, the Red River Delta and coastal northeast, including Hanoi, Hai Phong city, Vinh Phuc, Bac Ninh, Hai Duong, Hung Yen and Thai Binh, Ha Nam, Ninh Binh, Nam Dinh, Quang Ninh provinces, will build connections between localities, develop tourism comprehensively and build specific tourism products in a tourism trademark for the whole Red River Delta and coastal northeast.

The Red River Delta and coastal northeast strives to be the leading destination to attract tourists in the country by 2030.

In addition, the master plan pointed out the target of attracting 5.37 million foreign tourists and 21.5 million domestic tourists by 2015, 7.12 million foreign tourists and 26.4 million domestic tourists by 2020. These are expected to contribute VND48.6 trillion (USD2.37 billion) and VND84.7 trillion (USD4.13 billion) to the country's GDP by 2015 and 2020, respectively.

Regarding developing tourism markets, speeding up both foreign and domestic tourists was stressed in the master plan.

For domestic tourism, the Red River delta and coastal northeast were asked to develop tourism within the regions, as well as in neighbouring regions, with the focus on tourists visiting for recreation, relaxation, festivals, shopping and spiritual purposes.

For foreign tourists, it stressed the necessity of attracting and developing regional markets such as Northeast Asia (Japan, China, the Republic of Korea and Taiwan [China]) and ASEAN, continuing to exploit traditional high-end markets such as Western Europe, Northern Europe, Northern America and Eastern Europe, and expanding to new markets of the Middle East and India.

Developing tourism routes with festival and spiritual themes such as Huong Pagoda - Tam Coc - Bai Dinh - Tran Temple, Giay Temple - Tran Temple, Keo Pagoda (Thai Binh) - Yen Tu (Quang Ninh), Hanoi - Hai Phong - Nam Dinh, and caves in Trang An and Ha Long Bay, were included in the master plan.

(Source: Vietnamtourism.gov.vn)