Quang Nam (VNA) – UNESCO-recognised Hoi An ancientcity in the central province of Quang Nam welcomes more than 3,000 tourists,mostly from Europe and North America, each day, a rosy sign for the local tourismsector after a gloomy period due to impacts of COVID-19.
According to the municipal Bureau of Culture and Information,among over 10,000 overnight visitors in Hoi An, 90 percent are foreigners, and theoccupancy rate stands at about 50 percent.
Nguyen Van Son, Vice Chairman of the Hoi An city People’sCommittee, said the city has instructed relevant sectors to guide local lodgingproviders, travel companies and management boards of tourism sites to employmeasures against the new coronavirus.
Inter-sectoral working groups have been set up to inspect theperformance of accommodations and restaurants in the work, he added.
During a field trip to Hoi An on February 22, Chairman of theprovincial People’s Committee Le Tri Thanh said the city has remained a brightspot in tourism in the region and the country as well.
He called for efforts to ensure Quang Nam and Hoi An in particularis a safe and friendly tourism destination.
Hoi An has been known in the internationalmarket with various names like Lam Ap, Faifo, Hoai Pho and Hoi An. The onlySoutheast Asian port-market in Vietnam and very rare in the world, Hoi An keepsalmost intact 1,360 architectural relics like streets, houses, assembly halls,communal houses, pagodas, shrines, clan houses, ancient wells and tombs. Theybear both the Vietnamese traditional art characteristics and the convergence ofeastern and western cultures.
Through centuries, yet customs and practices,rites, cultural and belief activities as well as traditional foods of Hoi Anare still kept and preserved along with generations of ancient street dwellers.
Hoi An also boasts a natural environment whichis healthy and peaceful with small suburban villages engaged in crafts likecarpentry and pottery.
The cultural and economic exchanges that ranfrom the 16th to the 19th centuries have left in Hoi An ancient town most ofthe forms of Vietnam’s ancient architectures, grouping traditional nationalarts enriched with sketches of foreign arts.
Hoi An is the only case in Vietnam and among the very rare casesin the world. With its values, Hoi An has been recognised by the UNESCO as aworld’s cultural legacy and honoured by many famous travel magazines. In July2019, with 90.39 points, Hoi An was elected by the Travel and Leisure travelmagazine as the most attractive city in the world in the year. It is also thefirst tourist site in Vietnam honoured by the Google Doodle./.