Bình Định tourism to undergo facelift

The provincial People’s Committee, in association with the Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BIDV), organised the seminar.

Delegates said the province should focus on developing high-end tourism and ecotourism and co-operate with neighbouring provinces.

Trần Bắc Hà, chairman of the bank BIDV, said the bank would call for investment in tourism as well as the economy and society in general.

The bank has pledged to offer VNĐ15.5 trillion (US$704.5 million) in mid- and long-term loans to the province’s infrastructure projects in the 2016-2020 period.

At the seminar, local authorities of Bình Định, Phú Yên, Gia Lai and Đắk Lắk provinces signed a co-operation agreement on tourism development.

Bình Định in the 2005-2015 period saw international visitors increase by 24.6 per cent.

Last year, around 206,000 international tourists, mostly Chinese, South Korean, and Japanese, visited Bình Định, ranking 22nd nationwide in attracting international visitors.

Russian visitors, who occupy one fourth of the total international visitor to the country, have yet to visit the province in high numbers.

The province has also attracted several investment projects, including high-end villas, resorts and entertainment area in Nhơn Lý and the Luxury Ecotourism Resort Eo Gió.

However, development has not fulfilled the potential due to shortcomings such as the lack of interesting tourist products and inadequate human resources for the tourism sector.