Trade and service sectors continue to flourish

Spring is the peak time for Ninh Binh's tourism industry. Dozens of events, spring festivals and tourism products  have helped attracted a large number of tourist arrivals.

The Department of Tourism has steered local businesses to prepare carefully in terms of infrastructure and service quality to serve tourists in the peak time.

Statistic showed that in the two first months of 2023, Ninh Binh served 2.33 million tourists, a 6-fold rise from the same period last year while revenues reached over 1.81 trillion VND, a 6.9-fold rise year on year.

The strong growth of tourism has created a driving force for the trade and service sectors to grow.

According to the Department of Trade and Industry, trade and service activities in Ninh Binh have continued to grow and reached high growth rates as compared to the same period in the previous year, especially tourism, accommodation and catering sectors.

Total retail sales in the first two months of 2023 hit over 10.25 trillion VND, a year-on-year rise of 32.8%.

Groups of commodities saw increases, namely food (up 62.6%); textile (up 51.2%); education and culture goods (up 41.5%); home appliances (up 34.3%); and fuels (up 30.3%).

The large number of visitors flocking to Ninh Binh has fostered the growth of hotels, restaurants and other services.

Revenues from accommodation and catering services in the first two months hit 1.25 trillion VND, a 2.1- fold rise.

The transport sector has also enjoyed strong growth. In February, the transport sector served 3.8 million people, a rise of 91.1% while 12.2 million tonnes of goods were transported, up 63%. Revenues from transport services reached 2.98 trillion VND, a year-on-year increase of 47.1%.

It can be said that tourism is seen as momentum for the province's economic recovery and growth. In the coming time, the Department of Tourism will enhance control and inspection of service quality at destinations, accommodation establishments and travel agencies.

It will work with other departments, sectors, localities and management boards to ensure social security and order, traffic safety, environmental protection, and civilized behaviours at tourist attractions.

At the same time, the trade and service sectors will continue implementing programmes of stimulus and maintaining stable prices of goods; assisting enterprises to apply e-commerce in their production and business activities, developing trade infrastructure synchronically; carrying out trade promotion programmes effectively; building and developing brand names; and increasing capacity for enterprises in terms of market studying and distribution system.

Translated by Nguyen Thuy