According to Da Nang-based travel agencies, the city has witnessed a sharp increase in Asian visitors since December last year thanks to the increase in charter flights from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea, and Air Asia’s cheap direct flights from Malaysia to Da Nang.

Meanwhile, Da Nang has seen a decline in the number of visitor arrivals from the United States, Europe and Australia.

Vitours Travel Agency Operations department manager, Mr. Le Tan Thanh Tung, said that Tet is the peak season for tourists, especially domestic, in the central region. Da Nang’s beaches, Hoi An and Hue, amazing helicopter tours and road trips to Laos are among the most popular attractions.

From the first to the third day of the lunar New Year 2012, all relics in the complex of Hue ancient citadel will open for free.

Phan Thanh Hai, deputy director of the Centre for Preservation of Hue Relics, said that all relics in the Hue royal citadel will open for free for all visitors on January 23-25.

“This is an annual activity of the Center for Preservation of Hue Relics,” Hai said.

The current prices of tickets to the Hue royal citadel is VND30,000-50,000 ($1.5-2.5) per a local visitor and VND55,000 ($2.6) per a foreign visitor.

In preparation for the 2012 National Tourism Year, the Hue Festival will open on April 7 next year.

All resources mobilized

The former imperial city of Hue in central Vietnam has held the Hue Festival four times, attracting an increasing number of both domestic and foreign tourists every time.

All the sub-festivals under the umbrella of the Hue Festival are organized using social resources, said Ngo Hoa, Vice Chairman of the Thua Thien-Hue Provincial People’s Committee. Private investors have spent several billion Vietnam dong preparing art exhibitions and garden houses for the festival and they will also invest a lot more in 10 other events for the Hue Festival.

Companies of Vietnam tour are currently offering a variety of attractive promotional programs for the upcoming holidays of Christmas, New Year and Tet (Lunar New Year).

Fidi Tourist Company is offering visitors more than 200 local and international tours. The Company is partnering with Vietnam Airlines and offering discounts of VND3.9 million (USD177) to VND6.9 million on tours that cover Hanoi-Bac Ninh-Halong-Trang An-Bai Dinh and Hanoi-Bac Ninh-Lao Cai-Sapa; and of VND8 million on a 7 day tour of London-Stonehenge-Wales, departing Ho Chi Minh City on December 9, 15, and 23.

Seven of Vietnam’s top hotels and resorts gained recognition in the 2011 Readers’ Choice Awards, published by one of the world’s most renowned travel publication, Conde Nast Traveler.

The country’s resorts which made the greatest impression on travellers were Life Heritage Resort Hoi An, The Nam Hai, La Residence Hotel & Spa Hue and Evason Hideaway, which each scored top-20 finishes in the Asian region. Only one other Asian destination - Bali - boasted as many resorts in the top-20 list.

In the hotel category, the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi and Park Hyatt in Ho Chi Minh City each ranked among Asia’s top 100. The Majestic in Saigon ranked among the top 125 hotels.

The central city of Da Nang attracted 25,000 foreign visitors in September alone, up 25 percent against the same period last year, said the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism.

In order to draw more tourists, the city has diversified its tourist attractions which are now suitable for rainy weather.

In addition to the Museum of Cham Sculpture and Ngu Hanh Son Marble Mountains, visitors are now able to take a cyclo tour around the city or visit World Heritage sites in the neighbouring provinces of Quang Nam and Thua Thien Hue.

Vietnam has participated in the Japan Association of Travel Agents World Trade Fair 2011 (JATA World Travel Fair 2011), which opened in Tokyo on Sept. 30.

As the first large-scale travel fair in Japan after the country was devastated by earthquake and tsunami in March, JATA World Travel Fair attracted the participation of tourism management units, travel agencies, hotel operators and airlines from 144 countries and territories around the world.

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), the national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines, Hue city and several Vietnamese travel agencies introduced beautiful images about the land and people of Vietnam . They also provided visitors with information about well-known tourist attractions in Vietnam and tourism products of domestic travel agencies.

Thua Thien – Hue Province is seeking US$30 million from Japan’s official development assistance (ODA) to renovate and reconstruct the works in the Forbidden Purple City of Hue City, said a provincial official in charge of heritage restoration.

Phan Thanh Hai, deputy director of Hue Monuments Conservation Center, said that one-third of the amount would go to the reconstruction of Can Chanh Palace, the imperial city’s second largest place after Thai Hoa Palace, which was destroyed in wartime.

Phan said that the renovation had been scheduled for ages, adding that in 1994, the center in cooperation with Japan’s Waseda University conducted research into the restoration of Can Chanh Palace as well as some works damaged in wartime.

Ninh Binh will focus on developing two main kinds of tourism – ecological and cultural-spiritual, a tourism official in the northern province has said.

Speaking at a conference on promoting the province’s tourism destinations in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday, Le Huy Hoang, a representative of the province’s Tourism Promotion Information Centre, said: “Authorities have instructed the tourism sector to focus on the province’s strengths.”

In the short term, it would focus on weekend, leisure and MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing, Exhibitions) tourism.

From 2015 it would intensify golf, shopping, homestay and river tourism.

Jetstar Pacific Airlines has called off its daily flights between Hanoi and Nha Trang City after more than three months of flying to the city in Khanh Hoa Province in summer.

The local low-cost carrier confirmed suspension of the flights between Noi Bai Airport and Cam Ranh Airport that it began in late May this year, attributing to low seating occupancy after the National Day holiday from September 2 to 4.

According to airlines and travel firms, demand for air demand increased dramatically for the flights from Hanoi to Da Nang, Nha Trang, Hue, Phu Quoc and Con Dao, and vice versa last summer when tourists flocked to seaside sites for their vacations.