Tourist arrivals in big cities up during New Year holiday

The Temple of Literature in Hanoi - Photo: VNA

Of them, 68,900 were foreigners, marking a 29 percent increase. The number of foreign tourists staying overnight in Hanoi was estimated at 53,000, up 39 percent year-on-year.

The total revenue from tourism rose by 17 percent to 755 billion VND (33.5 million USD).

Major tourist attractions include Van Mieu – Quoc Tu Giam, Imperial Citadel of Thang Long, Hoan Kiem walking street, and Huong Son relic site.

Meanwhile in the central province of Thua Thien – Hue, more than 30,000 visited Hue heritage sites, including over 24,000 foreigners, said Director of the Hue Monuments Conservation Center Phan Thanh Hai.

On January 1, the US native Allicock Stephangary aboard the Vietnam Airlines flight from Hanoi to Hue was welcomed in Phu Bai international airport as the first visitor in the province in 2018.

Last year, the center welcomed over 3 million tourists, including more than 1.8 million foreigners, earning roughly 318 billion VND.

Nguyen Van Phuc, Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Tourism, said the province strives to lure 4-4.2 million holidaymakers in 2018, up 10-12 percent, 40-45 percent of them will be foreigners. Tourism earnings will increase by around 15 percent to 4.2-4.3 trillion VND.

The province plans to hold a series of cultural, art and sports activities to attract visitors, expand new tourism markets via partnering with airlines and twinning localities, and offer famtrip and presstrip to foreign travelling and press agencies from major markets in Europe, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, North America and Australia, he said.