Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaking at the teleconference

The teleconference took place in Ha Noi, the central city of Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City at the same time on January 12.

In 2016, many Party policies and guidelines and State management regulations in culture, sports and tourism, such as the Law on Tourism, and a project to develop tourism into a spearhead sector, have been refined.

The preservation and promotion of cultural values have reaped significant outcomes, helping honor the traditional cultural values and create attractive cultural and tourist products.

In the year, the practice related to the Vietnamese belief in Mother Goddesses of the Three Realms has been officially recognized by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity, increasing the number of internationally-claimed heritage possessed by Viet Nam to 25. Meanwhile, sportsmen harvested standout attainments in a lot of international competitions.

Viet Nam greeted 10 million international visitors and earned revenues of 400 trillion VND, fulfilling four years ahead the targets set in the Viet Nam tourism development strategy to 2020 with a vision towards 2030.

Besides achievements, the leader worried about such problems as deviation from traditional cultural custom, degradation in ethics and lifestyle, vanity, extravagance in weddings, funerals and festivals, poor cultural life in rural, remote, mountainous areas and industrial zones, low sport performance in various regional and global competitions, and uncompetitive tourist products, asking the sector to fix them in the coming time.

Regarding 2017 tasks, he said culture development should be stepped up in harmony with economic development. Social progress and people’s living conditions need to be further improved. The world’s cultural quintessence should be absorbed selectively while traditional cultural identities should be preserved and promoted.

The cultural sector should create a new image of Viet Nam and its people working to intensively integrate into the global life along and build a healthy cultural environment.

He underscored the need to develop a community doing tourism in a decent and orderly manner, make policies and institutions to promote tourism development and regional tourism brands.

The tourism sector should seek to lure more foreign tourists to Viet Nam, who wish to stay longer, make higher expenses, go home with memorable experiences and come back again. In the immediate run, the sector should tackle tourists’ fears in security and safety, he said.