Hanoi opens tourism department

HANOI  Hanoi’s city authorities will form a Tourism Department separating it from the nationwide Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
VietnamNet Bridge media reported that the city’s People’s Committee chairman has signed an order that authorises the city to establish a department to govern tourism directly rather than through the national ministry’s department.
The new department will be headquartered at 17 Dien Bien Phu Street, Dien Bien ward, Ba Dinh district, Hanoi. It will be staffed by one director and three deputy directors.
The structure of the department includes a general office, an inspectorate, a travel management office, an accommodation office and a planning, research and development office.
inside no 1The department will function as a consultant, helping the People’s Committee to manage tourism activities and carry out tasks, the report said.

It will also be responsibility to assemble plans and tourism promotion programmes and hold fairs, conferences and exhibitions approved by the city.
For January to June, this year, Hanoi welcomed around 10 million tourists, up 4% compared to the same period, last year, 1.5 million of which were international tourists.
Ho Chi Minh City was the first city in Vietnam to remove the management of tourism from the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism last October.
HCMC had a separate tourism department in 1993 before it was merged into the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2008.

sourced:ttrweekly.com