Although beach and islands tourism has for long been a key component of Vietnam’s non-smoke industry, analysts say the country can further exploit the potential of this tourism segment.

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) recently spelled out a scheme centered on sea and island tourism to develop the tourism industry in the next decade.

Many travel agencies have responded by promising to design more sea and island tours to attract both domestic and international customers.

Nguyen Van My, director of Lua Viet travel agency, said many vacationers had expressed a desire to visit Truong Sa and Hoang Sa archipelagoes when they knew about plans to start tours there.

Nguyen Quoc Ky, director of Viettravel, hailed the idea of taking tourists to Truong Sa and Hoang Sa, adding that these special tours could be started soon.

A three-day package to Truong Sa for 20 to 30 tourists was fully feasible, he added.

Travel firms have also improved their means of transportation to meet the demand for flying further to Vietnam’s seas and islands.

Vu Duc Bien, deputy director of the Vietnam Air Service Company, said his company had all kinds of aircraft to fly vacationers to remote islands and seas where other airlines would not.

Tavitour and Saigontourist are also planning to start more tours to Cham Isle and Ly Son Island in the central provinces of Quang Nam and Quang Ngai.

Nguyen Van Tuan, general director of VNAT, said under the sea and island development scheme, there would be five sea tourism areas by 2020 — Ha Long-Cat Ba, Lang Co-Son Tra-Hoi An, Nha Trang-Cam Ranh, Phan Thiet-Mui Ne, and Phu Quoc.

Other potential areas like Van Don and Co To would be developed further and tours to Truong Sa and Hoang Sa archipelagoes would be tapped, he added.

Dr Ha Van Sieu, head of the Institute for Tourism Development Research, said the spinoff from the sea and island development scheme would be the creation of many sea-related products like water sports and resorts.

Since tourists were losing interest in famous beach destinations in the Mediterranean and Caribbean, new beach attractions in Vietnam had the potential to become big, he said.

Pointing to shortcomings in infrastructure, he said the tours to Truong Sa and Hoang Sa cannot be launched if transportation, hotels, and restaurants were not good enough.

“The government must invest more money to upgrade the infrastructure so that we can actually take tourists to Truong Sa-Hoang Sa,” he added.

VietNamNet/Tuoi Tre