Illustrative image (Source: Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism)Thua Thien-Hue – With its
strengths in traditional medicine, abundant medical human resources and natural
hot springs, the central province of Thua Thien-Hue has rolled out measures to optimise
its potential in wellness and medical tourism.
Boasting a system of high-end resorts and hotels
located in peaceful areas on hills and along river banks and beaches, the ancient
capital city of Hue is an ideal place for tourists to immerse themselves in
nature and relax.
In order to be ready for the new tourism trend,
the Hue Central Hospital has worked with the provincial Department of Tourism to
build wellness tourism programmes, while upgrading its
infrastructure system.
Associate Prof. Doctor Nguyen Van Hy from
the hospital said it has offered diverse medical packages
suitable to different groups of customers, focusing on dental, aesthetic and
cosmetic medicine, and plastic surgeries to meet the increasing demand for
beauty care.
Particularly, as the capital city of the
country during the Nguyen Dynasty, Hue also had “Thai Y
Vien”, which was once the healthcare agency for not only the royal family
and mandarins in the Royal Palace, but also soldiers and people under the
Nguyen Dynasty. Thai Y Vien has become a unique heritage that is being
restored and promoted as an exclusive product of Hue, helping promote the
province’s medical tourism using traditional medicine.
Director of the provincial Department of
Tourism Nguyen Le Phuc said that in Vietnam, wellness tourism is still a
new product but with great potential.
He underlined that Thua Thien-Hue boasts full conditions to become a wellness and medical tourism hub of the whole
country. However, the province has much to do to bring its advantages into full
play, he said.
Truong Thanh Minh, Director of the Tourism
Information Promotion Centre, said the province has still been weak in the promotion
of its destinations and wellness tourism trademark.
Permanent Vice Chairman of the provincial
People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Binh said that in order to turn the locality into
a real centre for wellness and medical tourism, in the time to come, the
province will focus on training professional personnel while combining human
resources of different sectors to serve wellness and medical tourism
activities.
At the same time, the locality will
strengthen marketing activities to popularise its strengths, intensive medical
technologies and modern medical achievements to visitors, while designing
special tours with the combination of natural exploration and medical
activities, he said.
Director of the provincial Department of Tourism
Nguyen Van Phuc said that the locality aims to develop wellness tourism into a supplementary
product of its heritage-culture-festival tourism, helping enhance the province’s
attractiveness.
It will call for the engagement of the
whole political system and local residents in responding to the World Wellness
Weekend campaign to lure more visitors, he said.
According to the Global Wellness Institute,
wellness tourism marked its presence in more than 100 countries in 2019 and is
forecasted to expand 7.5% each year./.
