Vietnam organizes tourism event at World Heritage site
Vietnam organizes tourism event at World Heritage sitewww.chinaview.cn 2006-02-11 23:49:09
HOI AN town (Vietnam), Feb. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- With streets draped
in red lanterns and posters
and colorful flags flying high, dozens of thousands of people gathered
in Hoi An town in Vietnam's
central Quang Nam province Saturday night to launch the National
Tourism Year 2006.
The declaration ceremony was impressive with a folk art
performance of local artists, showing
Quang Nam's cultural features in the past and at the present at a
grand floating stage with strobe
lights in Hoai river, which was filled with hundreds of tiny paper
boats carrying burning candles.
Dozens of Vietnamese men and women on boats decorated with lights
and flags showed the images
of the bustling trade life on the province's rivers several centuries
ago. The performance was
followed by traditional dances in the folk music with heart-to-heart
melody which sketches peaceful
life of local people and praises love to country and people.
The National Tourism Year 2006 with the theme of "Two world
heritages at one destination" aims
to develop the country's tourism industry into a staple economic one,
and welcome the upcoming 10th
National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Vietnamese Deputy
Prime Minister Vu Khoan said
in an opening speech.
The event, which lasts during the year, will honor tourism and
culture value of Quang Nam, the
locality with the ancient town of Hoi An and My Son sanctuary
recognized as world cultural heritages
by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, an
official of the provincial tourism
department said at a press briefing on Saturday afternoon, adding that
it will also help expand
trade and investment cooperation with foreign partners.
The event held for the first time in Quang Nam will make use
ofthe traditional cultural space
of the province to stage various typical arts programs, including
music, folk songs, and dances.
Tours to the world cultural heritages, craft villages and
landscapes, fashion shows,
international seminars on tourism and investment, an international
tourism trade fair and a
gastronomic festival will also be organized.
Vietnam, which welcomed 3.46 million international arrivals and
made tourism revenues of 30
trillion Vietnamese dong (VND) (1.89 billion U.S. dollars) in 2005,
received 349,000 foreign
visitors in January, posting a year-on-year rise of 15.9 percent,
according to the Vietnam Tourism
Administration.
The country is expected to lure 3.8 million foreign arrivals and
17 million domestic ones, and
reap tourism revenues of 36 trillion VND (2.27 billion dollars) this
year, the department said.
