Being one of the leading tourism hubs of Vietnam, the southern metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City has planned to turn the “non-smoke” industry into the city’s key economic sector.

To develop tourism industry, besides building a strategic development plan, the city also plans to improve facilities, service quality and intensify human resource training.

Annually, the average number of foreign visitors to the city accounts for 56.6 percent of the total foreign visitors to the country, while earnings from the sector make up about 39 percent of the country’s total figure. However, the city’s tourism development has not tapped its potential.

Experts said the city should settle current shortcomings which hinder the sector’s growth to turn tourism into its key industry by 2020, helping create driving force for other economic sectors./.