Thua Thien-Hue (VNA) – Thua Thien-Hue province hasbeen taking numerous measures to truly turn tourism into a spearhead industry,and these efforts have resulted in encouraging outcomes.

In the first four months of 2018, the centralprovince welcomed 1.89 million tourist arrivals, including over 750,000foreigners – up 12.7 percent year on year. Local accommodation facilitiesearned some 557.1 billion VND (24.4 million USD) in tourism revenue, rising by13.92 percent from the same period last year.

Notably, more than 400,000 tourists came to theHue Festival 2018 from April 27 to May 2, and about half of them wereforeigners.

Deputy Director of the provincial TourismDepartment Nguyen Van Phuc said Thua Thien-Hue aims to attract 4 – 4.2 millionvisitors this year, up 10 – 12 percent, with about 40 – 45 percent beingforeign vacationers. It hopes to record a 15-percent increase in tourismrevenue to 4.2 – 4.3 trillion VND (184.1 – 188.5 million USD).

To this end, he noted, the province has beencarrying out a number of activities like decorating Ky Dai (Flag Tower) with1,000 LED lights, firing cannons on Ky Dai, and organising night activities tochange the impression of Hue as a “sleeping early” city.

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Aside from improving existing tourism productsand inventing new ones, it is also working to create series of cultural, artsand sports events, organise periodical festivals, and protect the environmentto charm tourists.

To explore new tourist sources and maintaintraditional ones, Thua Thien-Hue has coordinated closely with airlines, otherVietnamese localities, and foreign destinations to open direct flights and newtours. Notably, it has created favourable conditions for airlines, majorbusinesses and travel companies to offer low-cost and charter flights linkingHue city with big cities in Vietnam and other countries, especially potentialmarkets in Europe and North Asia.

Phuc said the province has worked with theVietnam National Administration of Tourism to organise fam trips and presstrips for foreign travel businesses and press outlets from key and potentialmarkets in Europe, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, North America,and Australia.

Meanwhile, it is also calling for and selectingstrategic investors in tourism projects and providing the best possibleconditions for major projects to help promote local attractiveness toholidaymakers.

Hue city in Thua Thien-Hue was the imperialcapital of Vietnam under the Nguyen Dynasty in over 100 years. 

It is home to five UNESCO-recognised heritages,namely the Complex of Hue Monuments (World Heritage Site), Nha nhac –Vietnamese court music (part of the Representative List of the IntangibleCultural Heritage of Humanity), the woodblocks of the Nguyen Dynasty(part of the Memory of the World Programme), the imperial archives of theNguyen Dynasty (part of the Memory of the World Programme), and the RoyalLiterature on Hue Royal Architecture (part of DocumentaryHeritage in the Memory of the World Programme in the Asia-Pacific region).-VNA