2:52:06 PM | 9/1/2007
A program to launch the Thai Nguyen National Travel Year 2007 was held at the Vietnam Museum of Cultures of Ethnic Minority Groups in Thai Nguyen city on January 6 with the participation of 350 delegates from 64 business association unions throughout the country.
The program started with a song and dance performance by the Vietnam Folk Song and Dance Theatre with the theme “Viet Bac misses Uncle Ho”, then the exchange among representatives from the National Administration of Tourism, the Vietnam Young Entrepreneurs’ Association and leaders of Thai Nguyen province.
With the theme "Thai Nguyen Tourism Year, back to the capital of mountain winds - Viet Bac revolutionary base", the province will launch a series of programs focusing on historical, cultural and ecological tourism.
Another ceremony to kick off the Tourism Year will be held in February, when the Tay ethnic minority group celebrates their well-known Long Tong festival (beginning a new crop).
Thai Nguyen, home to the Viet Bac revolutionary base during the resistance war against the French colonialists, expects to welcome 750,000 tourists and earn over VND300 billion (US$18.75 million) from travel and hotel services in 2007.
“We hope that the image of Thai Nguyen in particular and Vietnam in general will be more widely popular with international travelers, paving the way for increased tourism investment in the coming years,” an official from the provincial tourism department said.
Last year, the National Tourism Year held in the central province of Quang Nam witnessed success, particularly a year-on-year increase of 20 per cent in the number of visitors, and overall turnover of VND400 billion (US$25 million). (The People)
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