Ninh Binh (VNA) - As host of the 2021 National Tourism Year, withthe theme “Hoa Lu - Thousand-year-old Capital”, the northern province of NinhBinh will work to promote itself as an attractive and safe destination fortourists.

If COVID-19 remains under control, the 2021 National Tourism Year willofficially get underway on March 20. Otherwise, it is scheduled to begin on April29.

Major activities will include the Hoa Lu, Trang An, and Dan Kinh Thienfestivals, the “Golden colours of Tam Coc - Trang An” tourism week, a paintingexhibition entitled “Ninh Binh cultural heritage”, a photo exhibition on “LegendaryNinh Binh”, and the Cuc Phuong forest week.

A range of activities will also take place in 27 cities and provincesnationwide.

Chairwoman of the provincial Tourism Association Duong Thi Thanh saidthe province will make the best use of digital transformation to advertise the differentevents.

Located in the southern reaches of the Red River Delta, Ninh Binh isknown for its wondrous natural scenery, with a labyrinth of waterways,mountains, and plains as well as cross-cultural influences from the north tothe south and from the mountains to the plains and coastal areas.

With unique artistic, geological, geomorphic, and landscape values andtraces of pre-historic life, the Trang An Landscape Complex was recognised byUNESCO as a World Cultural and Natural Heritage Site in June 2014, becoming thefirst mixed natural and cultural property in Vietnam. It is also home to anumber of attractions recognised as special national relic sites.

Foreign geologists have lauded Trang An as one of the world’s mostbeautiful karst tower landscapes, an “outdoor geological museum” over 250million years old and a primeval forest with rare flora and fauna. Its karsttowers, which have been weathered by wind and water, have turned Trang An into whatmany call “Ha Long Bay on Land”.

The Trang An complex is covered by green forest and bell-shaped karst formationsup to 200 metres tall. It is surrounded by rolling mountain ranges and swamps interconnectedvia an underground stream network.

Lying in the complex, the Trang An eco-tourism site has also been honouredas a special national relic. It boasts 250-million-year-old limestone mountainsand winding, meandering swamps, valleys, and caves. There are also floodedforests, forests on limestone mountains, and traces of the ancient capital of HoaLu.

Also part of the complex, the Tam Coc - Bich Dong tourism site is about8 km from the centre of Ninh Binh city, in Ninh Hai commune, Hoa Lu district. Beautifulyear round, Tam Coc is at its most impressive in June, when its paddy fieldsturn golden at harvest time.

Its three caves were formed by the Ngo Dong River flowing through themountain.

Tam Coc was in the top 15 “beautiful but little-known” destinations in2015, as voted on by readers of the UK’s The Telegraph newspaper.

In early 2018, the image of the Ngo Dong River asa soft strip of silk curving around mountains in Tam Coc appeared in BusinessInsider magazine, heading a list of the 50 most attractive destinations in theworld.

Two thousand-year-old templesdedicated to the Dinh and Le emperors also add to the attractiveness of Hoa Lu.Other pagodas and temples were built within limestone mountains, of which BaiDinh is one of the largest in Southeast Asia.

Tourist arrivals in Ninh Binhincreased 11 percent annually from 2010 to 2019, with revenue growing 23.6percent.

It welcomed around 7.4 millionvisitors in 2018, including 6.5 million domestic travellers, and earned over3.6 trillion VND.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic lastyear, arrivals reached just 2.8 million, or 37 percent of the figure in 2019./.