Ho Chi Minh City's first foreign visitors of 2018 were welcomed at Tan Son Nhat International Airport on January 1 morning. (Source: VNA)HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City greetedthe first foreign visitors of 2018 at Tan Son Nhat International Airport onJanuary 1 morning.
The city’s first visitors who come from France were treated to artperformances, and Vietnamese coffee and tea. They were also guided how to make“non la” (conical hats), flowers and locusts from coconut leaves.
Mbodj Camtam said she visits HCM City every New Year holiday, and travels to manylocations like Phan Thiet and Binh Thuan with her family. She particularlynoted the fusion of modernity and tradition in Vietnam’s development.
Tran Vinh Tuyen, Vice Chairman of HCM City People’s Committee, said the city servedmore than 6.38 million international holiday-makers in 2017, up 22.88 percentyear-on-year. The number is expected to climb to 7.5 million this year.
In 2017, the southern hub served an estimated 24.98million domestic tourists, a rise of 14.6 percent against 2016. The city aimsto attract 29 million domestic vacationers and earn 138 trillion VND (6.07billion USD) from the tourism sector in 2018.
The municipal Department of Tourism also held a ceremony to greet the firstdomestic visitors of the year on early January 1.
The same day, the central city of Da Nang welcomed the year’s first tourists,who flew in from the Republic of Korea (RoK) on Vietjet’s VJ881 flight. Also onthe morning of January 1, nearly 2,000 Chinese holiday makers arrived in thecity on cruise liner MSC Lirica.
According to the municipal Department of Tourism, during the three-day New Yearholiday from December 30, 2017 to January 1, 2018, the total number of touriststo Da Nang is estimated at nearly 143,000, up 17.9 percent year-on-year, ofwhich over 81,500 are foreigners.
In 2017, Da Nang hosted 6.6 million visitors, ayear-on-year increase of 19 percent, and earned over 19.4 trillion VND (853.6million USD) from tourism, up 20.6 percent over 2016 and fulfilling 104.9percent of the set target.-VNA
VNA
