US travel site urges tourists to explore Vietnam

With Vietnam looking to develop tourism into a key driver of economic growth, a US travel site is urging travellers to check out the best of the country before it is too late.

Foreign visitors at the Hue Imperial Citadel

A piece by Canadian writer Lewis Kelly published on New York-based travel site thrillist.com names Vietnam as one of the destinations to visit “before it’s too popular” and provides a list of must-see sites in the country.

It is potentially the perfect bucket list for first-timers to Vietnam, and includes the world famous Ha Long Bay, Hoi An, royal tombs and temples in Hue, Ho Chi Minh City’s Notre Dame Cathedral and Hanoi’s Old Quarter, Sa Pa in the northern highlands, and the Ban Gioc Waterfall on the Chinese border.

The country’s tourism industry earned 400 trillion VND (17.6 billion USD) in 2016.

With visa waiver policies for several large markets in Asia and Europe, the industry hopes to welcome 17-20 million foreign visitors and make 35 billion USD per year by 2020, contributing 10 percent to the country’s GDP compared to the current 7.5 percent.

VNA