Vietnam Focuses on Border Festivals to Attract Visitors

The Vietnam tourism authority is attaching special importance to holding festivals in border areas during the rest of this year in a move to attract more overland tourists to the country.

 

To this end, more capital will be injected into activities to prepare for cultural festivals and trade and tourism promotion fairs in provinces like Quang Ninh, Lang Son, Cao Bang, and Lao Cai that border China.

 

The administration said unless these events succeeded in pulling in visitors, the number of foreign tourists coming to Vietnam would increase by a mere 3 per cent over last year, the lowest growth rate in the last six years, except for the SARS-hit year 2003.

 

Many tourists had canceled trips to Vietnam since they could not find hotels and suitable entertainment complexes, a tourism official said, explaining that almost all hotels and resorts in the country are busy with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Meetings scheduled for October and November.

 

Vietnam now has around 24 localities sharing borderlines with other countries in the region. Young People Online