The event, linked with sites in all the 63 centrally-run cities and provinces, brought together representatives from ministries, agencies, localities, and travel organisations, associations and firms, experts and researchers.

In his opening remarks, Chinh said the conference is the third of its kind to implement the Politburo’s Resolution No. 08-NQ/TW, dated January 16, 2017, on turning tourism into an economic spearhead.

He attributed the great efforts by the tourism sector, under the Party’s leadership and the State’s management and with the engagement of the entire political system and the support of the business community and the public, to domestic tourism recovery.

The leader also noted challenges to the sector, especially in attracting foreign visitors, as many countries and major, traditional markets and partners of Vietnam have still maintained immigration restrictions due to complex COVID-19 pandemic developments, and negative impacts of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

According to the PM, such immigration barriers are expected to be removed this year, which will generate both opportunities and challenges to Vietnamese tourism, including competition pressure.

Turning tourism into an economic spread requires solutions to the issues, both short and long terms, Chinh emphasised.

He urged the participants to seek solutions to accelerate tourism development in the time ahead, firstly to fulfill the target of welcoming 110 million visitors this year, including 8 million foreigners, and earning 650 trillion VND (27.65 billion USD) from the industry.

Policies on infrastructure development, tourism promotion, environmental protection, cultural development in combination with tourism development and resources mobilisation, visa, labour and technology should be proposed on this occasion to create breakthroughs in the sector, he said.

Developing tourism in a rapid and sustainable way is the responsibility of the entire political system, the Government, ministries, agencies, localities, people and businesses, not a single individual, the leader noted.

Statistics by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism showed that the number of international visitors to Vietnam jumped to 18 million in 2019 from only 7.9 million in 2015.

Vietnam's average annual growth of 22.7% is among the highest in the world, according to the World Travel Organisation.

The country’s tourism has stepped up eight places on the 2021 Tourism and Travel Development Index (TTDI) to the 52nd as compared with that in 2019, said the World Economic Forum (WEF) Report.

With six out of the17 pillar indexes ranked among the top in the world, Vietnam's tourism ranks among the top three fastest growing countries.

Since the border reopening on March 15, 2022, the sector has been recovering, especially domestic tourism.

Last year, the country served 101.3 million domestic visitors and 3.5 million foreign tourists, and raked in 495 trillion VND from the industry, up more than 23% from the set target, and equivalent to 66% of the 2019 figure./. VNA