Vibrant atmosphere return to local tourism sites

Hotels and other lodging facilities near the special national heritage Mu Cang Chai Terraced Field in the northern province of Yen Bai has been packed with holiday-makers those days as the COVID-19 pandemic has been brought under control.

Mu Cang Chai in the ripen rice season. (Photo: NDO/Thao Nguyen)
Mu Cang Chai in the ripen rice season. (Photo: NDO/Thao Nguyen)

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According to Secretary of Mu Cang Chai district’s Party Committee Nong Viet Yen, a large number of domestic and foreign tourists have flocked to the locality to experience local ripen rice season.

The district built a plan to organise the Mu Cang Chai terraced field festival with a wide range of activities featuring cultural identities of local ethnics, he added.

Particularly, the new highlights of this year’s festival are the Discover Mu Cang Chai marathon with the participation of 100 athletes, a helicopter cruise to experience the landscape from above, a camping festival and the district's four-season outdoor spectacle.

Besides, the paragliding festival “Flying over the ripe rice season”, and traditional contests also excited festival goers.

Meanwhile, a tourism promotion campaign named “I love Sa Pa” kicked off in Sa Pa town, Lao Cai province on September 30 with an array of cultural, art and sport activities and promotional progammes to lure more tourists to the locality.

Sa Pa town, bestowed with stunning natural landscapes together with outstanding culture, has been a safe destination since the second wave of COVID-19 outbreak hit Vietnam in July.

The number of tourists to Lao Cai province fell 67% year on year to 1.3 million during January-September, making revenue gained from tourism services decrease 70% to over VND4.7 trillion (US$202.2 million).

If the tourism promotion activities show efficiency, the province can greet 2.5 million visitors and gain over VND11 trillion in 2020.

Da Nang to host first tourists after COVID-19 resurgence

Meanwhile, in Da Nang, the municipal Department of Tourism, in cooperation with Vietnam Airlines, will host the first tourists to visit the central city after the resurgence of COVID-19 in late July.

The department said a group of 55 tourists from the capital city of Hanoi have booked a three-day and two-night tour exploring destinations in the coastal city on October 4-6.

It said the Hanoian tourists, who will join the tour of Hung Long Thanh travel agency, will take a return flight from Hanoi to Da Nang to land at Da Nang International Airport on October 4.

The department said it hopes more domestic tourists would come to Da Nang soon with promotion programmes offered by travel agencies, airlines and hotels.

Sun World Ba Na Hills, one of the top tourist attractions in Da Nang, reopened to the public last week.

The city’s tourism industry has been heavily damaged by COVID-19 and it hosted only 2,800 tourists in August, 95.5% decrease from the same period last year.