Summer tourist season to kick off

With the arrival of summer's first heat waves, localities nation-wide kicked off a range of events to attract tourists seeking to spend the summer holidays by the beach or in the country's mountainous regions.

Festivities will kick off tomorrow in the central coastal city of Da Nang with song performances by Vietnamese artists by My Khe beach. The 2014 Holiday Beach Da Nang Show is free-of-charge music performance and is be one of the main events in the lineup to ring in the summer tourism season.


The show follows a similar festival titled "Da Nang Beach – Old Destination, New Look" that launched at Bien Dong Park and Pham Van Dong beach on Wednesday.

The six-day festival will showcase a wide range of cultural and recreational activities such as bai choi (singing while acting as playing cards), folk games, photo exhibitions and art performances, and aims to promote tourism to the Son Tra peninsular and city beaches. The festival also aims to call on the community to protect the marine environment, a valuable source of the city's tourism revenue.

The show will also encompass favourites from last year, including competitions and thrilling shows using speedboats and jet-skis, banana boats, parachute surfing, and a swimming competition for sea lovers. But this year's event will also see the introduction of some new activities such as a bikini flash mob, beach volleyball, a hip hop dance competition, and bike and kayak racing.

On Thursday night, the north-central province of Thanh Hoa also celebrated the beginning of the summer vacation period with a wide selection of performers taking the stage at Sam Son beach.

The show, "Sam Son – Sea of Love", attracted thousands of tourists holidaying on Unification Day (April 30) and May Day, and wrapped up with a 15-minute firework display.

The tourism season festival will be divided in two phases. The first culture-tourism week, from April 30 to May 5, includes sports competitions featuring badminton, tennis, sea sports, water-based motor sports. The second phase features the Banh Chung – Banh Day festival (round cakes made of sticky rice), the Cau Ngu (Whale) festival and other food extravaganzas that will take place in the second week of June.

Tourism is the driving force in the Sam Son Township's economy. The beach attracted nearly 2.5 million tourists last year, bringing in a turnover of 1.25 trillion (US$60 million). The area is aiming to host 2.75 million visitors this year with an expected revenue of 1.5 trillion.

Local authorities have gotten behind the push suggesting a number of measures to enhance the quality of tourism services. So far, authorities have targeted improving the management of tourism services, tourism infrastructure, facilities, human resources and security. Creating a tourism-friendly environment is also a priority to promote the destination as a trustworthy location for tourists. Measures may even be taken to monitor service prices to crack down on swindlers.

Sa Pa ethnic festival

Meanwhile, thousands of tourists treated their eyes and ears to a spectacular lineup of performances by singers from the Mong, Dao, Tay, Giay, and Xa Pho ethnic groups at a still-running festival in Sa Pa Township.

Chairman of the Sa Pa District's People's Committee, Le Duc Luan, said more than 10,000 domestic and international tourists attended the opening on Thursday alongside local residents.

The Festival on Cloud is part of the culture-tourism week which ends tomorrow in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai.

"Tourists to Sa Sa during this year's Festival on Cloud can discover famous tourism areas in the northwestern region of Viet Nam through lots of activities," said director of the provincial Tourism Information Centre, Ha Quoc Trung.

Accordingly, festival goers can join in traditional games such as tug-of-war, swinging, and crossbow shooting, in addition to learning about souvenirs, local jewellery, production tools, music instruments, and ethnic costumes.

On the same day, other activities took place to promote tourism in Sa Pa Township, with tourists getting an opportunity to study the cultural, spiritual and working life of the Mong people, including learning about traditional silver carving, farm tool manufacturing, cloth weaving, and indigo drying of the Dao people.

More than 4,000 rooms in Sa Pa had already been booked for the event.