Representatives from Ha Long and Mong Cai cities of Quang Ninh province and three cities of Chinese Guangxi province – Dongxing, Guilin and Manzhouli, gathered at a conference on December 2 to discuss cooperation measures to connect tourism routes through the localities.
Visitors at the Viet Nam-China international trade-tourism fair (Photo: VNA)
The event was held within the Vietnam-China international trade-tourism fair that is underway in Mong Cai city.
As the only Vietnamese province that share both road and sea border with Chinese Guangxi province, Quang Ninh is an important gateway between China and localities in Viet Nam as well as Southeast Asian nations.
Both localities own diverse tourism resources that are supplementary to each other. The two sides have cooperated closely in tourism promotion, human resources development and tourism environment management.
In the recent five years, Quang Ninh’s tourism sector expanded 11 percent per year on the average, with the number of foreign tourists rising 15 percent annually. In the first 10 months of 2019, the province welcomed 11.7 million visitors, up 10 percent year on year, including 4.2 million foreign tourists.
Statistics showed that the number of Chinese visiting Quang Ninh through Mong Cai border gate accounted for 20-30 percent of the total foreign arrivals in Quang Ninh.
In 2019, Quang Ninh is estimated to serve 14 million tourists, 6 million of whom being foreigners.
However, the locality has yet to meet the demand of tourists in the diversity of tourist destinations, service quality and infrastructure system.
Participants at the conference focused on seeking measures to connect tourism sectors of the five cities with the building of new tourism routes and the improvement of tourism service quality as well as human resources for the sector.
They discussed solutions to stabilize travel activities through Mong Cai-Dongxing border gates to build the image of friendly, hospitable, safe and reliable tourism destinations for Quang Ninh and Guangxi.
Concluding the conference, the five localities signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in expanding the “two nations – five cities” tourism route. At the event, local businesses of Quang Ninh and Guangxi also signed contracts on collaboration in tourist exchange./.