Hanoi (VNA) – An official has saidHanoi’s tourism products should be associated with advertising high-qualitygoods, especially those which are the signature of craft villages.

“The efforts aim to develop the city’shigh-quality tourism products while contributing to implementing the‘Vietnamese prioritise Vietnamese products’ campaign,” said Tran Duc Hai,Director of the municipal Department of Tourism (DoT).

In 2017, Hanoi took steps to promote localtourism, instructing local travel agencies to offer tours including shopping forlocally-made products. 

The tours taught foreign tourists aboutVietnamese high-quality goods, particularly the products of Hanoi-basedtraditional craft villages, Hai said.

Hanoi is home to more than 1,350 craft villages,45 percent of the nation’s total number.

The villages offer many unique products in termsof technique and design. Bat Trang, for example, is famous for its ceramicswith white glaze and blue patterns, considered an “East-meets-West” product.

The city has also selected 15 craft villages toset up inter-village tours including Thang Loi, Ha Thai, Phu Vinh, Van Phuc,Son Dong, Bat Trang and Kieu Ky. 

Made-in-Hanoi crafts have also been introducedto a wide range of festivals and trade fairs at home and abroad.

In 2018, the promotion of locally-made productswill be continued on social media and in the city’s cooperation strategies withthe US-based CNN channel and TripAdvisor-the US's premier travel website,among others, according to Hai.

Chairman of the Hanoi VietnamFatherland Front Committee Vu Hong Khanh stressed the need for Hanoi to increasethe production of local products.

As the head of the municipal Steering Committeefor the “Vietnamese prioritise Vietnamese products” campaign, Khanh said “weneed to ensure domestic production toward better quality and more diversedesigns.”
 
He requested local firms, district steering committees,and the DoT make greater efforts to introduce Vietnamese products to tourists.

“The point is to connect supply and demand viapublicity and promotion, thus boosting tourism in association with Vietnamesehigh-quality products,” Khanh said.

He suggested the DoT develop a magazineintroducing local tourism products, services, goods and tours to Hanoi-basedcraft villages and local production and distribution establishments.

“Local craft villages should offer tourismservices and products at reasonable prices and in an environmentally-friendlymanner,” Khanh said.

The craft villages have consolidated theirfoothold in Hanoi’s socio-economic structure, shipped their products abroad andhave created jobs for 740,000 workers. 

The Hanoi People’s Committee recently issued aplan on craft village development for 2018.

The city will provide funds for 12 villages tobuild trademarks, 20 craft production establishments to hire experts fordesigning products and 14 other establishments to apply advanced technologies.

The capital will also train 24,000 rurallabourers and 1,500 managers of rural production establishments.

The movement, “Vietnamese prioritiseVietnamese products”, started in 2006 and has since built trust in the qualityof Vietnamese goods.

At a recent conference reviewing the campaign in2017 and launching tasks for 2018, Tran Thanh Man, President of the VietnamFatherland Front said the campaign received good responses from people andlocal businesses.

“The campaign contributed to raising people’sawareness of selecting and using Vietnamese products while helping businessesbe aware of their role and responsibility in manufacturing quality products tomeet demands of consumers,” he said.-VNA