A beach in Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa province

Speaking at the event, Tran Son Hai, Vice Chairman of the Khanh Hoa People’s Committee, said local tourism has recorded high growth over the past year but shortcomings remain.

According to him, these shortcomings included tourism products lacking diversity, service quality not meeting tourists’ demand, restrictions in tourism promotion and low quality human resources.

Hai asked the provincial Tourism Department to work with relevant agencies to restructure the sector to make Nha Trang – Khanh Hoa a mark in Vietnamese and global tourism maps.

Nguyen Truong Son, a business development executive at the Crystal Bay group, shared solutions to connecting natural heritage areas between the northeast and central regions, and between Ha Long Bay and My Son Sanctuary as well as the Champa cultural regions of Nha Trang and Ninh Thuan province.

Son said despite differences, once these areas are successfully connected they will bring more diverse experiences for visitors, particularly foreigners. He added the solution also helps localities involved in capitalising on their tourism potential and improves competiveness and added value. 

Participants discussed matters including how to increase environmental quality and service quality for maximum exploitation of local tourism. 

They suggested carrying out market research on foreign tourists, tourist markets and tourism products.

In the first six months of 2018, Khanh Hoa welcomed 3.2 million staying visitors, of which more than 1.5 million were foreigners, up nearly 60 percent year on year.

The entire province currently runs 684 accommodation facilities with about 31,700 rooms.