Lang Son (VNA) – The northernborder province of Lang Son hopes to receive more than 2.9 million touriststhis year, including 435,000 foreigners, bringing in some 1 trillion VND (43.11million USD), according to local authorities.

To realise the target, the provincewill focus on ecotourism, resort tourism and cultural and spiritual tourism, headof the province’s steering committee on tourism development Duong Xuan Huyenhas said.

Lang Son has worked to encouragelocal people’s engagement in tourism development and participation in building theprovince as a friendly destination.

Along with improving quality and diversifyingservices in current attractions, the province also eyes new tourism projects,notably at Dong Dang railway station in Cao Loc district and another to developfarming and animal husbandry in combination with ecotourism in Chi Langdistrict.

In addition, Lang Son’s tourism authoritieshave bolstered exchanges with their counterparts of China’s Guangxi ZhuangAutonomous Region to enhance tourism cooperation in the Vietnam-China borderarea.

The sector has also worked withGuangxi’s Department of Culture and Tourism to organise courses to improvequality tourism and language proficiency for tour guides.

In the future, the province will runmore local cultural and tourism events, as well as trade promotion activities, includinga programme on northern provinces’ heritage sites, along with the Chi Langcustard-apple and Bac Son tangerine festivals.

Statistics of the provincialDepartment of Culture, Sports and Tourism show Lang Sonwelcomed more than 1.03 million visitors in the first three months of 2019, up10.4 percent year-on-year and hitting 35.3 percent of the year’s plan. Of thefigure, there were 122,600 foreign visitors.

Earnings from tourism servicesreached 320 billion VND (13.79 million USD) in the period, up 4.9 percentcompared to the same time last year.-VNA