The meeting last week was attended by relevant authorities from Dien Bien, Ha Giang, Hoa Binh, Lai Chau, Lao Cai, Phu Tho, Son La, and Yen Bai provinces.

                        LoLo Hill Tribe in North Vietnam
Standing vice chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee, Le Thanh Liem, said it is important for all participating provinces to carefully prepare to develop promising tourism products.

Last July a study team from the city Department of Tourism, Tourism Association, Saigontourist, and Vietravel visited the provinces to create tourism products.

A major conference on tourism co-operation between the two sides is expected to be held in late August though Liem said the actual timing would be confirmed later.

Similar collaboration between the city and localities in the Mekong Delta and the south-east has been in place for a while now.

Liem said the tourism strengths of the eight north-western provinces would be further enhanced with this tie-up.

                          Terrace Rice Fields
Le Van Quy, vice chairman of the Dien Bien People’s Committee, said his province is home to the historical Dien Bien Phu relic and has the potential to develop eco-tourism.
But it has not thrived due to transportation limitations, he said.

“The province does not have any large tour operator, making it difficult to create tours jointly with other localities.”

With HCM City’s help, new tours to Dien Bien could be created and the province’s human resources could be trained better, he said.

Tran Duc Quy, vice chairman of the Ha Giang Province People’s Committee, said most tourism products in the north-west are similar, and so it is important to find out the unique and outstanding feature of each province to create diverse tours and attract more visitors.

“The north-west is rich in culture. Hoa Binh Province also plans to place more emphasis on the service industry, particularly tourism,” a representative of Hoa Binh Province said.  VNS