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Hanoi
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| Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Source: Internet. |
Hanoi welcomed nearly 250,000 tourists during the recent three-day National Day holiday, up 9% compared with the same period last year. The total revenue of tourism activities reached VND645 billion (US$27.7 million), up 5% year on year.
The capital’s Department of Tourism announced that the number of foreign visitors to the city from September 1-3 surpassed 36,700, of whom approximately 26,500 stayed overnight, year-on-year rises of 16% and 17%, respectively.
Notable tourist attractions in the city include the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the Thang Long Imperial Citadel and the Vietnam National Village for Ethnic Culture and Tourism.
This year, Hanoi expects to serve more than 25.4 million holidaymakers, including 5.5 million foreigners, and gross some VND75.78 trillion (US$3.33 billion) in revenue. Last year, the city welcomed nearly 5 million foreign vacationers, up 23% against the previous year.
Sapa
Sapa district in the northwestern province of Lao Cai welcomed 47,000 visitors from August 30 to September 2 during the National Day holiday, 15,000 higher than the same period last year.
Located 350km northwest of Hanoi, Sa Pa is 1,600m above sea level, with average temperatures of 15-18°C. The town is dominated by the Hoang Lien Son mountain range, which is home to Indochina’s highest mountain of Fansipan at a height of 3,142m above sea level.
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| Sa Pa. Source: Internet. |
According to Do Trong Nguyen, head of the Office of Culture and Information of Sa Pa district, of the total, 3,100 were foreigners and 43,900 were Vietnamese. Nguyen attributed the rise to the ongoing Sa Pa Autumn Festival that runs from September 1 until October 30 with various activities, including a photo exhibition, a street festival and activities to explore the culture of Mong, Tay and Xa Pho ethnic minority groups.
Sa Pa has many natural scenic sites such as Ham Rong Mountain, Thac Bac (Silver Waterfall), Cau May (Rattan Bridge), Bamboo Forest and Ta Phin Cave. The hill town is home to six main ethnic minority groups, including Kinh, Hmong, Dao, Tay, Day and Xa Pho with various traditional festivals and unique cultural practices.
Currently, Sa Pa has nearly 500 accommodation facilities with some 6,000 rooms for about 13,000 tourists. Homestays in villages have also become attractive to visitors.
Da Nang
The central city of Da Nang welcomed nearly 120,000 visitors during the recent National Day holiday from September 1-3, an increase of 30.8% from the same period last year. Foreign tourists were estimated at more than 31,550, accounting for 26.3%, according to the city’s Department of Tourism.
Throughout the three-day holiday, the city hosted a series of exciting events to attract visitors, such as the Ba Na Hills Beer Festival, the biggest of its kind in Vietnam and held at the titular mountaintop resort complex; a cuisine festival; the launch of Son Tra Night Market; and a water sports festival on Han River.
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| Golden Bridge in Da Nang. Source: Internet. |
To better serve visitors, the department requested local tourism service providers to take measures to ensure security and environmental sanitation, as well as to publicly list their rates. The number of travelers to the city has been increasing each year, with an average annual growth of 20.06% between 2013 and 2017.
Da Nang welcomed more than 4 million tourists in the first half of 2018, surging by almost 30% year-on-year. Notably, vacationers from the Republic of Korea shot up by 100% to account for half of the over 1.6 million foreign arrivals in the city during the period.
Da Nang is a popular tourist destination in central Vietnam. The online marketplace and hospitality service Airbnb announced a list of the world’s top 10 destinations for 2018, in which the city ranked fifth in booking surges of up to 255%.
Can Tho
The Can Tho Municipal Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced that, from September 1-3 (National Day holidays), the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho welcomed 82,800 tourists, an increase of 8% year-on-year.
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| Floating Market in Can Tho. Source: Internet. |
Accordingly, the total number of visitors staying overnight in the city during the holidays reached 21,900 people, 10.6% higher than the same period last year, including 2,550 foreign visitors, up 10.1%.
Total revenue from tourism activities are estimated at VND54 billion, a rise of 12.7% year-on-year. Major tourist destinations of Can Tho include Ninh Kieu bridge, Ninh Kieu port, Truc Lam Zen Pagoda, My Khanh eco-tourism village, Lung Cot Cau and Lung Tram tourist areas, and Mien Tay bird park, the department reported.
Can Tho is at the center of the Mekong Delta, which is designed to be one of the seven key tourism regions of Vietnam under the master plan for tourism development until 2020 with a vision to 2030.
In the first seven months of this year, Can Tho served more than 5.2 million visitors, and the figure for the entire year is estimated to surpass 8 million.
