Hue City Eyes Medical Tourism Development Leveraging Medical and Cultural Strengths

Hue City, the ancient capital in central Vietnam, is accelerating its efforts to establish medical tourism by leveraging its advanced healthcare system, high-quality human resources, and unique cultural, resort, and healthcare resources. The city aims to attract approximately 800,000 domestic tourists and 8,000 to 10,000 international tourists annually by 2030. Hue City seeks to build a national brand for medical tourism by elevating its local values into healthcare tourism products. This initiative is also linked to discussions on developing Hanoi as a high-quality medical tourism destination and contributes to the national goal of positioning Vietnam as a destination offering reliable medical and tourism services. In recent years, Hue City has also shown willingness to expand cooperation in the medical, tourism, and aviation sectors with South Korea, aiming to further enhance the quality and appeal of medical tourism through international collaboration. This move can be interpreted as part of Vietnam's strategy to increase its competitiveness in the international medical tourism market. Under Vietnam's one-party system, government-led national strategies are a crucial driving force for economic development. Investments in new industrial sectors like medical tourism are positioned as a means to achieve the dual objectives of diversifying economic growth and improving public health. Furthermore, in relation to China, while maintaining economic ties, this move can also be seen as an effort to diversify markets in terms of attracting tourists.