World Tourism Day 2024 celebrated in Hanoi

A ceremony was held by the Vietnam Tourism Association in Hanoi on September 26 in response to the World Tourism Day (September 27).

The event featured some special performances reflecting the folk culture of Vietnam, expected to become a source for developing cultural tourism products.

Every year, the global tourism sector organises various activities on September 27 to raise public awareness of the importance of tourism to countries’ socio-economic development. This is also an occasion for inspiring tourism workers and businesses’ confidence and pride in their sector’s role.

This year, the World Tourism Organisation (UN Tourism) choose the theme “Tourism and Peace” for the World Tourism Day with the aim of highlighting the vital role of this sector in fostering peace and understanding among nations and cultures, and in supporting reconciliation processes.

Moreover, tourism also has clear links with peace building factors like social equality, human rights, economic equity, sustainable development, and extensive democracy with the capacity of non-violent conflict settlement. Apart from economic benefits, the biggest strength of tourism is to bring people closer together. Tourism holds the potential for contributing to peace through various ways.

In particular, UN Tourism emphasises the role of young people, noting that by investing in the youth, providing education - training opportunities, and encouraging their active engagement in tourism, the potential of young people could be capitalised on to promote social changes and peace.

In Vietnam, tourism has gained sufficient conditions to affirm its status as an important economic sector.

During the first eight months of 2024, the country welcomed 11.4 million international arrivals, rising 45.8% year on year and 1% compared to the same period of 2019. Domestic travellers numbered 89.5 million. Total tourism revenue was estimated at 586.1 trillion VND (23.8 billion USD), statistics show.

With such figures, the tourism sector is likely to bounce back comprehensively and break the record set in the pre-pandemic 2019, according to the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism.