Hanoi has so far this year become one of two localities in the country that have attracted the largest number of foreign tourists, mainly from 162 countries worldwide, said Nguyen Quang Lan, director of the capital city's tourism service.

Hanoi accounted for 34 percent of the total foreign arrivals in the country in 2004, Lan added.

This was attributed to the efforts of Hanoi's tourism companies to advertise attractive tourism programmes such as tours to traditional craft villages, pagodas, temples, and ancient villages in Hanoi and surrounding areas.

Hanoi's tourism sector has cooperated with 15 provinces and cities in organising hundreds of tours to those localities such as adventure tourism in northern mountainous areas, Fanxipang mountain climbing in northern mountainous Lao Cai province, sea tourism in Nha Trang, eco-tourism in Cuc Phuong National Park (northern Ninh Binh province) and Sapa (Lao Cai province) and tours to ethnic minority-inhabited areas.

Pham Tu, deputy general director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, suggested that the capital city's tourism industry increase its competitiveness in the quality of tourism services, tours imbued with national cultural identity and cooperate with other provinces and cities in tourism in order to fulfil the target of welcoming 4.5 million tourists, including 1 million foreigners, this year.

In addition, the city's tourism industry should continue tapping international tourism markets, including France, Russia, China, the US, Japan and Western Europe while seeking new markets such as Africa, the Middle East, Asia and South Asia, he noted.

Hanoi now has around 360 hotels with almost 8,000 rooms meeting international standards and 200 international travel agencies with more than 1,000 tourist guides. (VNS)