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| Permanent Vice Chairman of Hue City People's Committee Nguyen Thanh Binh (on the right) presented flowers to the first international tourists to Hue in 2025 by air |
Need to diversify flight routes
Being present during the welcoming of international flights, I and other tourism workers felt very excited and hopeful. Since the opening of the Terminal T2 of Phu Bai International Airport (in April 2023), the story of an international airport that lacked international flights has changed. Hue has operated flights between Hue and Kunming City (Yunnan Province, China), Hue and Seoul (South Korea), and Hue and Taipei (Taiwan, China) through charter flights.
However, the number of flights and routes connecting Hue with international tourist markets is not yet large. According to tourism industry information, in 2024, there were about 40 international flights to and from Phu Bai International Airport. Considering the capacity and compared to expectations, this number is clearly too modest.
On domestic routes, in addition to Hue - Hanoi and Hue - Ho Chi Minh City, the airline industry has operated flights between Hue and Da Lat. However, only flights connecting the two ends of the country are well-maintained. As for flights to Da Lat, where many people from Hue are living and are expected to attract tourists to visit relatives, there are still difficulties.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism has recovered strongly. In 2024, Hue's tourism sector welcomed nearly 3.9 million tourists, an increase of nearly 22%; of which, there were nearly 1.45 million international tourists, an increase of nearly 17%; domestic tourists increased by 25%. The proportion of international tourists accounted for nearly 36% of the total number of tourists to Hue. The leading tourist markets are the ASEAN, Northeast Asia, Western Europe, North America, and Australia. For long-distance destinations, choosing air travel seems to be inevitable. The increasing demand for tourists to choose Hue as a destination is reflected in the statistics on tourism, but the inability to exploit direct flights to and from Hue has left some concerns.
According to Mr. Truong Thanh Minh, Director of Hue Tourism Promotion Information Center, one of the concerns is that inbound flights to Hue from other countries have good occupancy rates, while outbound flights from Hue to international markets are facing difficulties. To ensure the efficient and long-term operation, flights must ensure a sufficient number of passengers in both directions.
The development of new flight routes also requires the number of passengers. Mr. Minh analyzed that experience from promotion activities and opening flight routes shows that there are two important requirements. Firstly, it is the tourism product. Each tourist market has different needs for products and services. For example, Chinese tourists like beach experiences, enjoying seafood, and some services according to their needs.
This poses the requirement to have tourism products and services for each tourist market. Secondly, it is the mechanisms and policies for partners. Opening flight routes requires organizing conferences to meet with international travel companies to introduce tourism information and cooperation mechanisms and policies. Partners are particularly interested in suitable cooperation policies and mechanisms. This is also a top priority that determines the effectiveness of operating and maintaining flight routes and attracting long-term passengers.
For a vibrant tourism sector
2025 is considered the year of Hue tourism when the locality is granted the right to host the Visit Vietnam Year. With many special programs, activities, and extensive promotion and communication, Hue aims to attract about 4.8 - 5 million tourists, of which international tourists account for about 38 - 40%.
At the conference to deploy tasks in 2025, the leader of the Department of Tourism said that the upcoming orientation will focus on the policy of promoting and opening flights from Hue to the markets, including: Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Can Tho, Nha Trang, Quy Nhon, Phu Quoc, Thailand, Japan, and South Korea.
Over the past time, the local authorities, leaders of Hue City, and the tourism sector have organized many meetings and programs to speed up cooperation with the aviation industry to promote and open flight routes. The linkage between tourism and aviation has also been strengthened. However, to attract tourists to Hue by air, as well as opening and maintaining new domestic and international flight routes, it is necessary to solve the problems of products and mechanisms and policies.
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh, Permanent Vice Chairman of Hue City People's Committee, stated that the city has identified tourism - service as its spearhead economic sector. The Visit Vietnam Year - Hue 2025 will be an opportunity, a foundation, and a new opportunity to develop tourism. The city has been building mechanisms and policies in a methodical and strategic manner to develop tourism. Among these, a key direction is to create new attractive products, improve the quality of pedestrian streets, and create the diversity and excitement in nightlife activities and cuisine on night streets to attract and retain tourists. In addition, there are mechanisms and policies to promote cooperation, promotion, and open flight routes.
The tourism sector and the business community are continuing to research, based on the tastes, the needs of tourists, and new tourism trends to build and perfect tourism products. Hue tourism takes culture - heritage as its foundation, and has many complementary tourism products, thereby diversifying the types of products and services.