Foreign tourists seen walking by Hoàn Kiếm (Sword) Lake in Hà Nội. VNA/VNS Photo Minh Quyết

HÀ NỘI As a gateway for tourists to come to Việt Nam, Hà Nội has rolled out initiatives to lure more travelers, focusing on diversifying cultural activities and promoting coordination between sectors to support the tourism industry.

The industry and trade, and agricultural and rural development sectors have been tasked with developing specialised cultivation areas for producing high-quality OCOP products, and establishing craft villages for tourism.

Hà Nội's historical sites have welcomed over 1.3 million visitors so far this year, earning VNĐ70.4 billion (nearly US$2.8 million), reaching 93.9 per cent of the plan set for the year.

A series of art performance programmes have been held to serve political and diplomatic tasks, attracting over 270,000 audiences, and raking in over VNĐ24 billion.

The Hà Nội Museum, where various exhibitions have been held, served 39,700 visitors in the first four months of 2024.

Thanks to various innovative forms for promoting tourism, the number of tourist arrivals to the capital city has significantly increased in the last four months, reaching over 157,000 foreign visitors and 571,000 domestic ones, up 59.8 per cent and 19.1 per cent, respectively.

To attract more visitors, the Hà Nội tourism sector is developing products associated with heritage, relic sites, and craft villages, and others based on strengths of each locality, like sports tourism in the outlying district of Sóc Sơn, and community and medical tourism in Sóc Sơn and Ba Vì Districts.

The city has also set up connectivity with other cities and provinces such as Hà Nam, Ninh Bình, Sơn La, Lào Cai, and Lai Châu to form travel routes where their key, reciprocal products are brought into full play.

Attention has also been paid to tourism digitalisation, covering information about tourist sites, services, and markets. VNA/VNS