Vice Chairwoman of the Quang Ninh People’s Committee Vu Thi Thu Thuy (R) presents flowers to a French tourist (Photo VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – The northernmountainous province of Lao Cai welcomed the first group of foreign tourists onFebruary 16, the first day of the Lunar New Year (Tet) 2018.
The group comprised 32 visitors from Chineseprovinces of Sichuan, Hebei and Jilin.
Representatives of the provincial Department ofCulture, Sports and Tourism presented flowers to the guests and wished them aNew Year of peace and happiness.
A Chinese tourist said he could feel the time-honouredfriendship between the two countries upon his arrival in Vietnam. He added thathe wants to celebrate Tet with Vietnamese people and make a tour around Lao Caito see changes in local lives.
According to DeputyDirector of the department Nguyen Dinh Dung, Lao Cai greeted 3.5 milliontourists in 2017, including 700,000 foreigners.
The tourism sectorgrossed nearly 10 trillion VND (439.7 million USD) in revenues. In 2018, theprovince targets nearly 4 million holidaymakers.
The same day, the northeastern province of QuangNinh held a ceremony to welcome the first foreign tourists from France to HaLong Bay – a world natural heritage site recognised by UNESCO.
Vice Chairwoman of the provincial People’sCommittee Vu Thi Thu Thuy extended her best greetings to the guests and toldthem that Quang Ninh was chosen to host the National Tourism Year 2018 withover 100 events taking place across 12 months.
A French tourist shared that this was the first visitto Vietnam and Ha Long Bay for most people in her tour and they were excited toexplore the world natural heritage site, especially during the traditionalLunar New Year.
According to the provincial Inland WaterwaysDepartment, Ha Long Bay expects to welcome 60,000 tourists during the firstfive days of the Lunar New Year, mainly from the Republic of Korea, China,China’s Taiwan, Northern America, and France.
The central coastal city of Da Nang alsowelcomed the first international flight of the year on February 16, which wasthe UO552 of Hongkong Express carrying 180 passengers from China’s Hong Kong.The airline is operating 12 direct flights between Hong Kong and Da Nang eachweek.
According to the department,Da Nang greeted 455,240 tourists in January 2018, a year-on-year rise of 21.1percent, including 236,863 foreign visitors, up 39.7 percent.
The tourism sector raked in over 1.33 trillionVND in revenues in the month, a year-on-year increase of 21.1 percent.-VNA
