Provincial Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Thanh Binh speaks at the ceremony celebrating the 50th anniversary of Vietnam Tourism sector held in Binh Dinh.

Binh Dinh is the home of many historical and cultural relics with unique features, including 13 Cham towers which still remain intact, a series of hundreds-year-old pagodas, Quang Trung Museum, and Hoang De (Emperor) citadel which is attached to the Tay Son movement as well as three Tay Son brothers.

It is also known as the land of martial arts and the land of Tuong (classical drama). Binh Dinh is the birthplace of bai choi (a type of folk song), well-known martial arts clubs, and many poets and celebrities, such as Dao Tan, Xuan Dieu, Han Mac Tu, and Che Lan Vien.

The province sees many traditional craft villages where famous specialties are made every day, like: Bau Da wine, Cho Huyen fermented pork roll, coconut girdle cake, and Song Than rice vermicelli.

Possessing a convenient traffic system and good accommodations, Binh Dinh’s tourism has showed signs of development, attracting many investors and foreign and domestic tourists.

The number of tourists coming to Binh Dinh has averagely increased by 22.1 percent per annum in the past five years. Last year saw nearly 1 million tourists. Many hotels have been newly built and attractive tourism destinations were upgraded, attracting more and more visitors.

However, such figures still fell short of expectations. The province’s tourism sector, thus, will continue to synchronously carry out many measures, aiming to make the tourism sector become one of important industries in accordance with the resolution proposed by the 18th provincial Party Congress

Accordingly, the authorities were required to raise the awareness of the importance of tourism, helping all bodies and people understand their responsibilities for the tourism development.

The resolution focuses on the planning, infrastructure construction, and key facilities, particularly tourism services, to attract more investors. Some key tourism routes were also asked to be implemented, such as Quy Nhon-Song Cau, Nhon Ly – Cat Tien, Trung Luong – Vinh Hoi, and other entertainment services.

The restoration of historical and cultural relics, folk festival, traditional craft villages as well as martial arts villages will be strengthened, according to the resolution, let alone periodically hosting Tay Son – Binh Dinh festival, international martial arts festival, and so forth, aiming to generating unique features of the land of martial arts.

The manpower is also an important factor for the tourism development. Giving priority over the tourism related workforce will help attract highly qualified people to work in Binh Dinh. Local universities and colleges need to be offered favourable conditions to open tourism courses, serving the sector’s development as well as the province’s tourism policies.

The resolution also eyes the tourism promotion, particularly orientations to take full advantage of the province’s advantages and potential.

The local tour operators were asked to pay more attention to tourist markets in HCM city, Ha Noi, and Central Highlands provinces. As for the foreign tourism market, the province will attract tourists coming from Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, East Asian countries, Russia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, etc.

With available advantages, Binh Dinh tourism is expected to fulfill all requirements, rising as one of the province’s key industries in the near future.

• Nguyen Thi Thanh Binh