Impressive numbers

According to Statistics Office's figures reported in the first nine months of 2012, Binh Thuan tourism welcomed an estimate of 2,390,000 turns of visitors, up 13% over the same period of 2011, achieving 76.11% of the year plan. In particular, there have been 264,960 turns of foreign visitors coming to Binh Thuan, an increase of more than 23% compared to the previous year's corresponding period and approximately reaching 78% of the year plan. International visitors mainly came from Russia (34.69%), Germany (8.83%), China (8.02%), South Korea (6.21%), France (5.55%), the US (4.67%), Australia (3.94%), the UK (3.92%), the Netherlands (3.4%)...

Corresponding with tourist volume, tourism forms in the locality have been cared and invested much more than before. Currently, there have been 201 operating tourist accommodations in Binh Thuan province with 8,250 rooms, increased 700 rooms in comparison with the end of 2011. Up to now, 140 accommodations (with 5,663 rooms) have been ranked, including 1 five-star accommodation, 16 four-star accommodations, 12 three-star accommodations, 57 accommodations rated from one-star to two-star ratings... Besides, in Binh Thuan,  there have been 32 domestic and international tour operators, more than 40 enterprises trading tour services and selling tickets of high-class bus for travelers. 

Thanks to busy activities, tourism revenue of nine months of 2012 achieved VND 3,246 billion, an increase of over 38% in comparison with the same period of 2011 and accounting for 80% of the year plan. These are impressive figures compared to the overall picture of current economic situation with a lot of difficulties and challenges…

Finishing early

In the recent time, Binh Thuan tourism has been paid special attention because of many remarkable matters. Typically, local authorities, with a professional manner, dealt with the incident in which the Lanta Tour company abandoned hundreds of Russian visitors in Mui Ne. Or Binh Thuan province was selected as one of the few Russian presidential polling stations in Vietnam in March, 2012. And the event was organized successfully. Moreover, public order, food safety, environmental sanitation and rescue work at tourist sites have had much progress and been put into order in the recent years. Especially in Tet festival and other holidays, the whole tourism industry has made great efforts to ensure service quality. In addition, overcharging, which can hurt the reputation of Binh Thuan tourism trade name, has not occurred...

With the achievements above, Binh Thuan tourism is a highlight of tourism map of the country and the region. Ms Hoang Thi Diep - deputy head of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, who paid a visit to Binh Thuan province in August 2012, highly appreciated the local tourism sector in the development process. She said that Binh Thuan had a good chance to surpass Quang Ninh tourism on competitiveness and attracting domestic and foreign visitors.

An irrefutable fact that Binh Thuan province has advantages on recreational tourism. However, if these advantages are promoted by "specialities" such as sports playing on the sea, sand hills and the air, Binh Thuan tourism will develop more and more.

According to forecast, tourism activities will have satisfactory results in the last 3 months of the year which is the travel season with a great number of foreign visitors, especially on Christmas and New Year Festival of solar calendar. Binh Thuan tourism is preparing to welcome domestic visitors on the occasion of Thay Thim palace festival and activities to mark Binh Thuan Tourism Day (expected to organized next month). However, the local tourism not only relies on "highlight", but also has confidence in steady tourist number on weekends.  For that reason, finishing targets of 2012 early is not very hard for Binh Thuan tourism with a long-term preparation for the sector's target by 2020. This is considered as a momentum for the entire tourism sector to have determination to implement the commissioned norms welcoming 7,500,000 turns of visitors and achieving a turnover of VND 9,000 billion by 2020.