Long-term goals of Hai Phong tourism

Cat Ba tourism infrastructure is increasingly being improved in an ecological and modern direction. Photo: XUAN THUY

Tourism infrastructure is increasingly synchronous and modern.

Returning to Cat Ba tourist area (Cat Hai special zone) in the summer of 2025, Mr. Duong Duc Minh, from Ho Chi Minh City, was surprised by the drastic changes in this tourist area. Just 5 years ago, this was still an emerging tourist area, without any 5-star hotels or luxury resorts. But now, Cat Ba is gradually becoming a high-end tourist area with a series of 5-star hotels, yachts, high-end entertainment areas and is a destination for top international cultural and sporting events.

Mr. Minh shared that the good news is that despite the strong development of tourism, the core values of Cat Ba, which are the natural beauty and unique culture of the island, are still very well protected. The tourism infrastructure projects and works invested on the island not only do not harm the rare natural values of Cat Ba archipelago but also contribute to enhancing the experience of visiting Lan Ha Bay, exploring the World Biosphere Reserve on Cat Ba archipelago, attracting tourists.

Not only Cat Ba, Hai Phong's tourism infrastructure has "changed dramatically" in the past 5 years, awakening the potential and advantages of one of the earliest tourism developing localities in the country.

At Do Son tourist area, artificial beaches stretch for kilometers, high-class entertainment spots such as Dragon Ocean Lighting Park, Thuy Tinh Water Park, Dragon Mangrove mangrove forest... in the Dragon Hill international tourist area operating from 2024 attract millions of visitors. The super project invested in construction by Geleximco Group from the beginning of the 2020 - 2025 term along with the city's significant investment in upgrading tourism infrastructure has been reviving the Do Son tourism brand.

Cat Ba tourism is developing strongly with the title of World Natural Heritage. Photo: XUAN THUY

The final year of the 2020 - 2025 term is also the time when Hai Phong launches a new high-end tourist destination on Vu Yen Island. A series of international-class projects such as: Vin Wonders Royal Parks Theme Park, Vinpearl Horse Academy Vu Yen, Royal Marina, Vu Yen Park Walking Street... turn Vu Yen Island into a leading entertainment complex attracting high-end tourists of the Port City in 2025.

To date, Hai Phong has attracted 15 tourism development projects with a total investment of more than VND 111,000 billion, including many large-scale tourist, entertainment and resort areas that meet international standards. Tourism infrastructure has grown significantly in both scale and quality; tourism facilities and technical infrastructure, especially traffic infrastructure connecting to tourist areas and destinations, have been focused on investment. The scale of tourist accommodation facilities in the city has reached 17,000 rooms, an increase of 25% compared to 2020 (13,636 rooms), including 16 hotels meeting 4-5 star standards.

Do Son tourism infrastructure has made a breakthrough development in the 2020 - 2025 term. Photo: PHAN TUAN

Of which, nearly 10 5-star hotels with many super luxury hotel brands such as: Sofitel, Pullman, Hilton... and a series of new 5-star cruise ships worth tens of millions of USD are operating on Lan Ha Bay, marking the effort to raise the level of Hai Phong's resort tourism on the world's high-end tourism map.

With many international tourism titles and awards, the prestige of Hai Phong's cruise ships and 5-star hotels for top-notch service quality is affirmed, not only serving MICE tourism (a special tourism model combining meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) but also meeting the strict requirements of high-end tourists, the super-rich, businessmen... around the world.

Impressive growth in difficult times

Along with tourism infrastructure, Hai Phong promotes the development of tourism products in the right direction of sea and island tourism as the core, spreading and developing types of sports tourism, resorts, MICE tourism, community tourism, rural agricultural tourism, and spiritual cultural tourism to expand space and develop diverse types of tourism products in the city.

New tourism products such as: Cultural, historical, experiential tourism associated with environmental protection and career guidance for students in the city, Hai Phong Foodtour, Hoa Phuong Do Train, river tourism, Hang Kenh Sacred Mark night tour... create their own mark and increase the experience to attract tourists to Hai Phong.

In particular, two major milestones in the 2020 - 2025 term are the event of Cat Ba archipelago being recognized by UNESCO as a World Natural Heritage and a part of Yen Tu - Vinh Nghiem - Con Son, Kiep Bac complex being honored as a World Cultural Heritage. Thereby, raising the brand of Hai Phong tourism, opening up great opportunities for the city to develop sustainable tourism, associated with preserving and promoting heritage values.

Cat Ba in autumn welcomes visitors with bright yellow sunshine. — Hai Phong is becoming one of the favorite destinations of international tourists.
Photo: PHAN TUAN

As a result, the number of domestic and international tourists to Hai Phong in the 2020 - 2025 term has grown significantly despite facing many "storms" due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Immediately after reaching a peak of 8.1 million tourists in 2019, Hai Phong tourism has seriously declined since the first year of the 2020 - 2025 term. Due to the strong impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020, Hai Phong only welcomed 7.2 million domestic visitors and 0.3 million international visitors. This number continued to decrease in 2021 with 3.6 million domestic visitors and 0.06 million international visitors.

However, tourism is also one of the city's industries that has had a strong recovery after the pandemic. From a slight recovery in 2023 with 6.9 million visitors, by 2024, this number will nearly double, reaching 11.65 million. In 2025, the city is expected to welcome about 13.9 million visitors - the highest level in the entire term, an increase of 41% compared to the peak in 2019.

New impetus for tourism development

One of the important factors promoting the strong development of Hai Phong tourism in the past term is the drastic and consistent direction of the City Party Committee and People's Committee. A series of specialized resolutions were issued, affirming the determination to make tourism a pillar of Hai Phong's economic development. From there, projects were built and implemented such as the Master Plan for Tourism Development in Hai Phong City to 2025, with a vision to 2030; the Project for Rural Tourism Development associated with New Rural Construction in Hai Phong to 2025 with a vision to 2030... were born, creating new momentum for Hai Phong tourism development in the coming time.

Part of the Yen Tu – Vinh Nghiem – Con Son, Kiep Bac complex has been honored as a World Cultural Heritage and is increasingly attracting tourists. Photo: DO TUAN

The achievements in tourism development in the 2020 - 2025 term are the premise for Hai Phong tourism to set big goals in the 2025 - 2030 term.

The draft Political Report submitted to the City Party Congress for the 2025-2030 term clearly indicates the orientation to develop Hai Phong into a regional and international center of sea tourism, culture and heritage; building typical tourism products associated with cultural identity, history and marine, agricultural and rural resources. In particular, Cat Ba, Do Son, Con Son - Kiep Bac play a driving role in developing a green economy, sustainable tourism, spreading the image of a civilized, friendly and livable Port City.

Specifically, the city will focus on effectively exploiting sea and island tourism resources and unique cultural heritage, making tourism a key economic sector. Developing Cat Ba into a "green island", a high-class ecological - resort destination; Con Son - Kiep Bac World Cultural Heritage into an international cultural and spiritual tourism center. Building tourist routes, improving traffic infrastructure to connect Cat Ba - Do Son - Con Son - Kiep Bac into a chain of sea - island - spiritual heritage tourism spaces, associated with historical, cultural values, and identity of the Northern coastal region.

At the same time, proactively research and propose policies to encourage the opening of more direct flights connecting Hai Phong with major economic and tourist centers in the country and Asia; develop tourism to become a driving force in the city's socio-economic development and international integration. In particular, promote tourism development and regional connectivity along the axis of the City Center - Cat Hai - Bach Long Vi - Hai Nam (China).

NGUYEN CUONG

Source: https://baohaiphong.vn/muc-tieu-xa-cua-du-lich-hai-phong-520868.html