Municipal authorities held a forum to seek ways for Hoi An’s sustainable tourism development on Thursday, attracting the participation of representatives from dozens of travel firms and their partners. 

Foreign tourists in Hoi An

According to Hoi An City’s Culture and Information Department, Hoi An welcomed more than 3.3 million visitors last year, including nearly two million foreigners.

In the first nine months of this year, the city served 4.55 million tourists, including 3.4 international travellers.

However, the city is struggling with sustainable tourism development.

At the forum, Nguyen Van Son, vice chairman of Hoi An City People’s Committee, said that European visitors to Hoi An have tended to sharply decrease. Particularly, the rate of travellers who did not return the city has been on the rise.

Meanwhile, rapid urbanisation has exerted pressure on local transport infrastructure and the environment. Apart from this, the so-called Zero VND tours have catered an increasing number of tourists to the city that have caused huge losses to local tourism revenue.

Son added that the shortage of new tourism packages and quality human resources in the sector has also affected the city’s tourism development. The locality also needs to deal with the overcharging and environmental pollution at tourism sites.

Participants at the event recommended the city consider accelerating electronic entrance ticket selling, and providing tourists with necessary information about the city, including maps and introduction of cultural relic sites.

The city would attract more visitors if the city could stop street vendors from cheating tourists or soliciting them to buy their wares, and ensure order in the tourist hub. It is also necessary to develop high-quality tourism products by enhancing co-operation among travel firms and improving capacity of staff as a significant measure to attract visitors from traditional markets and those willing to spend more.