Exploiting unique tourism potential
In 2026, the province aims to welcome 15 million tourists, an increase of about 21% compared to 2025, with total tourism revenue estimated at 35,000 billion VND. The goal by 2030, the province strives to welcome 18.5 million visitors, including 1.1 million international visitors; tourism revenue reaches about 45,500 billion VND.
Vice Chairman of Gia Lai Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Thi Thanh Lich affirmed that the locality will prioritize resources to successfully organize the 2026 National Tourism Year event, not only promoting local tourism development but also creating a shift in economic development thinking, taking tourism as a driving force to spread to many other fields.
With the theme "Gia Lai - The Great Forest Touches the Blue Sea", the 2026 National Tourism Year will send a message to domestic and international friends about a new Gia Lai - a destination that converges the unique values of the Central and Central Highlands regions. Gia Lai currently has the second largest area in the country, only after Lam Dong. The province possesses a lot of tourism development potential with a diverse ecosystem from the great forests, islands to the Central Highlands Gong Cultural Space - a representative intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
Ms. Do Thi Dieu Hanh, Director of Gia Lai Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said that the province will organize the "Weekend Gong - Enjoy & Experience" program at the provincial level to preserve and promote the values of the Central Highlands Gong Cultural Space. The program is chaired by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in coordination with the People's Committees of communes and wards, from March to the end of December 2026, taking place on Saturday evenings every week (from 7pm to 9pm) and during holidays and events.
In addition, the province will also restore and maintain 1-2 typical traditional festivals each year using gongs, suitable to the characteristics of each locality. Practical activities, teaching and performing gongs in the community will also be maintained through clubs and grassroots gong teams. Gia Lai will promote digitization of documents, images, sounds and videos about gongs, build a digital data warehouse to serve research, promotion and education. The work of inventorying, comprehensive surveying and digitizing the database on the gong cultural space will also be implemented to fully preserve heritage values before the risk of fading. It is expected that the province will propose considering awarding the titles of People's Artisan, Meritorious Artisan in the field of intangible cultural heritage to at least 10 artisans practicing gongs.
Developing experiential tourism from coffee
In March 2026, Gia Lai Tourism Association coordinated with departments and branches to organize a survey program to build a Café Farm experience tour in the Pleiku area. The activity is part of the Gia Lai Specialty Coffee event series (Cafe Show) in response to the 2026 National Tourism Year.
Gia Lai currently has more than 100,000 hectares of coffee, which is one of the largest raw material areas in the country. The province's coffee products have been exported to many demanding markets such as: Japan, the US and Europe. From this advantage, the coffee farm experience tourism model is expected to open up a new direction for the local tourism industry. Instead of just enjoying coffee at the cafe, tourists can directly visit the farm, learn about the coffee planting, care, harvesting, roasting and processing process.
