Addressing the event, Deputy PM Dam praised the localities’ efforts in COVID-19 prevention and control, as well as their linkages in tourism and economic development.
In the time ahead, he asked HCM City and northeastern provinces to ensure effective pandemic fight and improve the tourist environment to become safe, friendly, attractive and responsible destinations.
Affirming smart tourism as an important development direction, the Deputy PM suggested the tourism sector and localities make the most of technology to digitalise tourism resources and products, from landscapes, relics and restaurants to artifacts with cultural and historical values.
At the conference, participants discussed tourism connection activities between the two sides in the 2020-2025 period and adopted a coordination plan to implement the bilateral tourism cooperation agreement for 2020-2021.
HCM City and eight northeastern provinces sign a cooperation agreement in tourism development. (Photo: VGP)
They focused on discussing the building of new directions for tourism development, especially on effectively exploiting the values of natural tourism resources, diversity and characteristics of the region, and the system of cultural and historical relics and craft villages, thus increasing the number of visitors, their spending and length of stay and contributing to all efforts to revive the tourism industry.
Chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong hailed the conference as an opportunity for localities to get a bettering understanding of their potential and advantages and share good practices and experience in state management over tourism, towards effectively tapping into strengths of each locality and contributing to developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector, as set in the Vietnam tourism development strategy until 2030.
The conference witnessed the signing of cooperation agreements between the HCM City Tourism Association, the Tourism Association of northeastern provinces and airlines, as well as between tourism service businesses of HCM City and northeastern localities.
