“Hanoi’s hinterland tourism would be one of the best in Asia’

Despite the great demand, resort tourism in the outskirts of Hanoi is still developing in a scattered manner.

Speaking of the potential to develop tourism in Hanoi’s hinterland, Amorn Harnkham says that this would be an attractive destination thanks to the connection of transportation system connecting outskirts and the central Hanoi.

He expresses that the most important thing to consider now is finding ways to connect Vietnam and such developed tourisms as Thailand in order to promote tourists in Thailand coming to Vietnam and vice versa.

“Vietnam has great potential to develop tourism, especially in outskirt areas thanks to the friendliness of people, stunning sceneries and attractive local products,” says Amorn Harnkham.

Sharing experience of Thailand in developing a wonderful tourism with 37 million tourists last year, he reveals that the country has a strategic position in Asia which has a great connection between areas within the country as well as those with other countries.

He says that Thailand has a number of modern airports. They also expect to develop some international airports in Chiang Mai and Phuket.

Thailand also aims to become a destination of islands and beautiful beaches as well as promote tourism and culture. In the west and the north of the country, Thailand attracts tourists to the ancient urban areas, promotes Muay Thai, traditional martial arts and cuisine.

The country also invests strongly in infrastructure, public transportation in order to create connectivity for ecotourism and resort. Thailand enterprises promote its tourism all over the world by connecting closely with media and co-operating with the local governments.

Amorn also highlights the friendliness of Thai people which is one of the most important factors in developing Thai tourism.

“When I come to Hanoi, I see people smiling. Vietnamese people are as hospitable as Thai citizens. I also have a feeling of safety which would be important for Vietnam to attract international tourists,” says Amorn Harnkham.

In terms of tourism in Thailand’s hinterland, he says that Thai people utilize everything suitable for developing tourism including building ecological gardens, mountain adventure travel.

For instance, they turned Chiang Mai into the center of northern Thailand and built resorts, turned forests into a tourist destination by providing transportation, connecting different forests so that tourists could enjoy the wild beauty of nature.

Both Vietnam and Thailand have great people and nature which offer a lot of potentials; however, Amorn expresses that there must be plans and strategies as well as interesting products to not only attract new tourists but also lure them to come back in the future.