Day: April 5, 2024

Hanoi: The tourism sector is striving to maintain the growth momentum recorded in the first quarter so as to fulfil the target of serving 18 million foreign visitors this year, given a full recovery in most of Vietnam’s markets.

In January-March, more than 4.6 million foreigners chose Vietnam as a holiday destination, representing increases of 72% over the same period last year and 3.2% compared to that in the same period of 2019. The sector also served 30 million domestic tourists. Total revenue from tourists is estimated at 195 trillion VND (7.8 billion USD).

According to the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism (VNAT) under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, major markets in Northeast Asia continued to see remarkable growth and are the main driving force for the recovery while those in Southeast Asia also grew well and in Europe continued to grow strongly thanks to the effect of the unilateral visa exemption policy by Vietnam. The recovery of the Chinese market in the period reached 69%, showi
ng a positive sign.

Major tourist destinations across the country also saw positive results in the past three months, attributable to early communication, advertising and promotion to stimulate tourism demand and favourable visa policies.

Notably, Hanoi welcomed about 6.54 million visitors, including around 1.4 million foreigners, representing year-on-year rises of 10.9% and 40%, respectively, and earned more than 25 trillion VND.

The central province of Quang Nam, home to the world cultural heritage sites of Hoi An ancient city and My Son Sanctuary, served over 1.6 million visitors, including more than 910,000 foreigner. The number of foreign arrivals represented a 36% year-on-year rise.

Thanks to its promotion efforts, the central province of Khanh Hoa which boasts the renowned Nha Trang beach city welcomed 2.1 million holiday-makers, of whom over 1.2 million are foreigners, during January-March.

Other localities like Da Nang and Binh Dinh also reported impressive results.

Besides the target of 18-mil
lion foreign arrivals, the sector also aims to serve 110 million domestic ones to earn 850 trillion VND.

To that end, VNAT Director Nguyen Trung Khanh stressed the need to innovate promotion methods; focus on exploiting customer market segments and products that Vietnam has strengths in such as MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions), golf, community-based tourism, cuisine, health care; and expand railway tourism.

It is also necessary to establish offices to promote Vietnamese tourism abroad, firstly in Vientiane, he added./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Hanoi: The tourism sector is striving to maintain the growth momentum recorded in the first quarter so as to fulfil the target of serving 18 million foreign visitors this year, given a full recovery in most of Vietnam’s markets.

In January-March, more than 4.6 million foreigners chose Vietnam as a holiday destination, representing increases of 72% over the same period last year and 3.2% compared to that in the same period of 2019. The sector also served 30 million domestic tourists. Total revenue from tourists is estimated at 195 trillion VND (7.8 billion USD).

According to the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism (VNAT) under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, major markets in Northeast Asia continued to see remarkable growth and are the main driving force for the recovery while those in Southeast Asia also grew well and in Europe continued to grow strongly thanks to the effect of the unilateral visa exemption policy by Vietnam. The recovery of the Chinese market in the period reached 69%, showi
ng a positive sign.

Major tourist destinations across the country also saw positive results in the past three months, attributable to early communication, advertising and promotion to stimulate tourism demand and favourable visa policies.

Notably, Hanoi welcomed about 6.54 million visitors, including around 1.4 million foreigners, representing year-on-year rises of 10.9% and 40%, respectively, and earned more than 25 trillion VND.

The central province of Quang Nam, home to the world cultural heritage sites of Hoi An ancient city and My Son Sanctuary, served over 1.6 million visitors, including more than 910,000 foreigner. The number of foreign arrivals represented a 36% year-on-year rise.

Thanks to its promotion efforts, the central province of Khanh Hoa which boasts the renowned Nha Trang beach city welcomed 2.1 million holiday-makers, of whom over 1.2 million are foreigners, during January-March.

Other localities like Da Nang and Binh Dinh also reported impressive results.

Besides the target of 18-mil
lion foreign arrivals, the sector also aims to serve 110 million domestic ones to earn 850 trillion VND.

To that end, VNAT Director Nguyen Trung Khanh stressed the need to innovate promotion methods; focus on exploiting customer market segments and products that Vietnam has strengths in such as MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions), golf, community-based tourism, cuisine, health care; and expand railway tourism.

It is also necessary to establish offices to promote Vietnamese tourism abroad, firstly in Vientiane, he added./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Hanoi: With the emergence of university-level courses focusing solely on the gaming industry in recent years, Vietnam is looking forward to a growth boost in the industry for digital economy development in the near future.

According to the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information director general Le Quang Tu Do, the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) aims to increase the industry’s revenue to 1 billion USD in its 2022-27 game development strategy.

Key areas of focus in this plan include expanding the number of businesses in the industry and joint training programmes with educational institutions.

While game design courses have been offered at more than 100 colleges across the world, the major is relatively novel to most universities in Vietnam.

A majority of the Vietnamese gaming industry’s workforce was trained in information technology (IT), software development or graphic design.

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In January this year, tech company Sconnect opened its Sconnect Academy of Media Arts (SAMA) w
hich specialises in animation and game design.

Meanwhile, FPT Polytechnic College announced that its two-year game programming course will be open for enrollment starting this admission season.

The Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology (PTIT) is also offering an undergraduate degree in game design this September and is expected to receive 200 students in the first cohort.

Speaking to Kinh te Sai Gon (The Saigon Times) online newspaper, the institute director Dang Hoai Bac said educational games are a focus of this programme, which has been designed to keep up with market trends.

It will also provide training in creative thinking and knowledge so that students can enter the global gaming industry workforce.

PTIT is the second higher education institution in the country to offer an undergraduate degree in game design, the first being RMIT University Vietnam in 2022.

Designed based on a similar course offered at RMIT University in Australia, the programme follows a project-based approach to
equip students with skills in various aspects of design and production, including digital project management, programming and scriptwriting.

A survey conducted by RMIT also showed Vietnam’s gaming industry is witnessing exponential growth, but significant investment in human resources is required for sustainable industry development.

According to the study, the industry in Vietnam reached 12 trillion VND (482 million USD) in revenue in 2020, more the twice the figure in 2015.

By number of downloads, Vietnam is among the top 10 game distributors in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, according to a report by the data platform App Annie.

Vietnam is also considered a major gaming centre in the region with approximately 430,000 game programmers working in local and multinational companies, but there are few designers.

Most of the studios in Vietnam are operating in a software outsourcing model, carrying out tasks related to graphic design, programming or cloning.

This approach brings back large profi
ts in the short term but does not allow these companies to make a breakthrough in the global market. There is also a lack of designers capable of creating an entire game title on their own from start to finish.

According to an RMIT University Vietnam representative, many of the locally made games were created without innovative thinking, leading to lacklustre products.

Vietnam needs to invest and develop a game industry workforce that is capable of identifying and solving problems, elevating the sector to become a pillar of the future digital economy.

Training for designers must equip them with the necessary skills and ability to adapt to the ever-evolving technologies.

Sharing the same perspectives, director of Aptech Computer Education in Vietnam Chu Tuan Anh said that a thorough game design course must be based on three factors, which are insights into the Vietnamese and international market; industry experts among the teaching staff; and professional opportunities and support for students.

According
to Nguyen Ngoc Bao, director general of VTC – a major game distributor in Vietnam, there is a large demand for human resources in the country’s IT sector, including the gaming industry.

Meanwhile, a gap remains between the capacity of programmers and industry demands, with only 30% of IT students meeting the skill requirements of companies, he added.

With more universities offering degree courses in this field, it is expect that the negative social prejudices on games will change and the workforce demand for the gaming industry will be met./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Hanoi: Alongside a promising growth in tourist numbers, Vietnam’s destinations are also highly acclaimed by international media, helping them reach a wide range of global travelers.

According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, the Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald published an article on the importance of sustainable tourism, presenting a list of 20 experiences with positive impact on the environment, ecology, and livelihoods of local residents. Among them, trekking tours through the UNESCO-recognised Non Nuoc Cao Bang Geopark in Vietnam’s northern province of Cao Bang made it to the list.

Previously, the Readers’ Choice Awards 2024 for the Asia-Pacific region by DestinAsian magazine named Phu Quoc at 6th place among the top 10 islands in the region. The destinations were voted based on expert and tourist evaluations, considering criteria such as appeal, experiences, local friendliness, cuisine, transport, infrastructure, convenient flight connections, and prices.

The 2024 Trav
elers’ Choice Awards – Best of the Best Destinations by TripAdvisor honoured Ha Long Bay (3rd place) and Sapa (5th) on its list of the top 25 destinations worldwide.

Meanwhile, the Yahoo! Finance website named Hue in the central province of Thua Thien Hue as one of the top 20 most underrated travel destinations throughout Asia.

Not only places, but some Vietnamese dishes have also been mentioned by the international media. Among them, Banh Mi (bread) topped the Top 100 sandwiches in the world) announced by the culinary website TasteAtlas last month./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Hanoi: Alongside a promising growth in tourist numbers, Vietnam’s destinations are also highly acclaimed by international media, helping them reach a wide range of global travelers.

According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, the Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald published an article on the importance of sustainable tourism, presenting a list of 20 experiences with positive impact on the environment, ecology, and livelihoods of local residents. Among them, trekking tours through the UNESCO-recognised Non Nuoc Cao Bang Geopark in Vietnam’s northern province of Cao Bang made it to the list.

Previously, the Readers’ Choice Awards 2024 for the Asia-Pacific region by DestinAsian magazine named Phu Quoc at 6th place among the top 10 islands in the region. The destinations were voted based on expert and tourist evaluations, considering criteria such as appeal, experiences, local friendliness, cuisine, transport, infrastructure, convenient flight connections, and prices.

The 2024 Trav
elers’ Choice Awards – Best of the Best Destinations by TripAdvisor honoured Ha Long Bay (3rd place) and Sapa (5th) on its list of the top 25 destinations worldwide.

Meanwhile, the Yahoo! Finance website named Hue in the central province of Thua Thien Hue as one of the top 20 most underrated travel destinations throughout Asia.

Not only places, but some Vietnamese dishes have also been mentioned by the international media. Among them, Banh Mi (bread) topped the Top 100 sandwiches in the world) announced by the culinary website TasteAtlas last month./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

HCM City: The Go Mongolia Roadshow 2024 took place in Ho Chi Minh City on April 5 as part of the southern metropolis’ tourism festival, showcashing the Mongolian culture, people, and potential for cooperation with Vietnam.

Organised by Mongolia’s Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Tourism Association, the programme featured representatives from over 10 Mongolian and approximately 40 Vietnamese travel companies.

Speaking at the event, Javzandulam Tumuruya, third secretary at the Mongolian Embassy, noted that during Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh’s state visit to Vietnam last November, the two governments signed a mutual visa exemption agreement, facilitating bilateral tourism cooperation.

She expressed her hope that through the roadshow, Vietnamese citizens will gain more information about the Mongolian history, culture, art, and tourism, and that cooperation between the sides’ tourism organisations will continue to thrive.

At the programme, representatives fro
m Mongolian Airlines announced a plan to open an Ulaanbaatar-Ho Chi Minh City flight route in November. Vietnamese and Mongolian tourism enterprises, meanwhile, discussed opportunities for partnerships and the opening of tourism routes between the two countries.

The event also featured traditional music performances, cuisine and beverages of Mongolia.

According to Nguyen Xuan Hanh, Honorary Consul of Mongolia in the city, this year, the mutual visa exemption agreement came into effect, with the establishment of direct flights creating significant opportunities for bilateral economic cooperation and people-to-people exchanges.

As per the embassy, there were 1,500 Vietnamese tourists visiting Mongolia in 2002, rising to over 2,000 in 2023. The respective figures for the numbers of Mongolians coming to Vietnam in the years were over 2,000 and over 15,000./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency