The central province of Thua Thien – Hue will offer free admission to the Complex of Hue Monuments, an UNESCO heritage site in Hue City, for Vietnamese visitors on National Day (September 2).

During the National Day holiday from September 1 – 3, the province will host the Hue Half Marathon 2018, a traditional boat race festival on the Huong River and a festival of “thanh tra”, a specialty pomelo of Hue, to draw visitors. 

Travel agencies have designed sightseeing tours taking visitors around famous temples around Hue and going on boat ride on the Huong River in the evening when tourists can enjoy live Hue folklore song performances and drop floating lanterns on the river.

The province expects to welcome an increase of 15% in travellers during the holiday, said Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Tourism Nguyen Van Phuc. The department has intensified inspection of local lodging providers and their fire prevention. The lodging providers are required to publicly list their room rates to avoid unreasonable price hike.

Thua Thien-Hue province is home to five UNESCO heritages, namely the Complex of Hue Monuments (World Heritage Site), Nha nhac – Vietnamese court music (part of the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity), the woodblocks of the Nguyen Dynasty (part of the Memory of the World Programme), the imperial archives of the Nguyen Dynasty (part of the Memory of the World Programme), and the Royal Literature on Hue Royal Architecture (part of Documentary Heritage in the Memory of the World Programme in the Asia-Pacific region).

The province is also well-known for Bach Ma National Park, garden houses of Hue, Tam Giang Lagoon, Lang Co Bay and beautiful beaches.

It received approximately 3.3 million tourists in the first two quarters of 2018. The figure included over 1.3 million foreigners, up 35 percent from the same period last year. 

The province aims to lure 4 – 4.2 million visitors this year, up 10 – 12%, with about 40 – 45% being foreigners. It hopes to record a 15% increase in tourism revenue to VND4.2 – 4.3 trillion (US$184.1 – 188.5 million).

VNA