A “Golden Tourism Week” will take place in the Hue ancient imperial relic site, a UNESCO-recognised World Heritage, in the central Thua Thien-Hue province from June 15-21.

According to the Hue Relics Preservation Centre, visitors to the site during the week will enjoy preferential treatment, including free tickets to the site for students and free tickets to the Royal Palace-Minh Mang Tomb-Khai Dinh Tomb route.

The centre will also hold a number of special tourism and cultural events and launch new services to attract tourists, including art performances and exhibitions.

The centre’s Director, Phan Thanh Hai, said that as of mid-June, the relic site had welcomed nearly 970,000 tourists this year, 504,000 of which were foreigners. Tourism revenue has reached VND90.4 billion (US$4.15 million), the highest recorded in the first five and a half months of a year.

The centre will organise two other promotion weeks this year, from September 2-8 and from December 24-30.

VNAT hosts conference on tourism development

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) on June 15 organized a conference in Ha Long City to discuss alternative strategies for augmenting the tourism industry that was attended by nearly 300 delegates from throughout the nation and beyond.

The event provided a forum for national and provincial tourism authorities, experts and practitioners to discuss and review opportunities and challenges facing the development of sustainable tourism.

Speaking at the conference, Nguyen Van Tuan, general director of VNAT, emphasised the need for a comprehensive strategy that would be implemented in a cohesive and well thought out coordinated approach.

During the event, eight localities agreed to cooperate in reengineering tourism products, promote tourism activities, train personnel, attract investment and enhance state management on tourism.

Ha Quang Long, director of the Provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism stressed the importance of travel agencies in conducting tours and serving as a bridge to strengthen co-ordination among provinces and cities nationwide.

He asked the HCM City Department of Tourism to work with travel agents to undertake a survey on tourist demands in order to design better tourism programmes more attractive to both domestic and international travellers.

Quang Ninh is noted for its geographical value and rich natural resources. Especially, Ha Long Bay located in the province has been recognised twice as a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site and cited as a magnificent wonder of nature.

Vietnam firm reconstructs sacred whale’s 10-ton skeleton

A company that manages a tourism site in southern Vietnam has successfully reconstructed a 10-metric-ton skeleton of a whale, which is believed to have weighed a whopping 100 metric tons.

Ngo Xuan Pha, board chairman of Bao Toan Automobile Co., said on June 14 that his company had rebuilt a whale’s skeleton which measures 33 meters in length and four meters in width.

The company runs Nha Mat Tourism Complex, located in Bac Lieu City in the eponymous province.

Pha added his company purchased the skeleton from a local residing on Phu Quoc Island, located off neighboring Kien Giang Province.

The whale, also known as Ong fish, is believed to have weighed up to 100 metric tons when it was alive.

The reconstruction only brought the bones 30 percent back to life, as they have sustained irreversible damage after some 60 years of burial, according to authorities.

The skeleton is currently solemnly placed inside the Nha Mat complex so that locals and tourists can admire it and pay their respects to the animal.

Fishermen living in such Mekong Delta provinces as Ca Mau, Bac Lieu and Kien Giang, and elsewhere, traditionally worship the whale, which is believed to bestow blessings on them and save them from sea accidents.

They hold a solemn procession and festival dedicated to the sacred mammal, the world's largest, every year.

Conference to boost north-south tourism links

Some 300 experts and representatives from eight localities, international organisations and tourism agencies gathered at a conference on tourism promotion in northern Quang Ninh province on June 15.

The localities include Ho Chi Minh City and the seven northern provinces of Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Bac Ninh, Bac Giang, Hai Duong, Hung Yen and Lang Son.

The event was co-organised by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the People’s Committees of Quang Ninh province and Ho Chi Minh City.

Director of the Quang Ninh Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism Ha Quang Long attached importance to the role of travel agencies in an effective cooperation.

He suggested the Ho Chi Minh City’s Tourism Department work closely with travel agencies to develop demand-driven services and tours between the city and northern localities.

Representatives from Hai Phong province highlighted the need for localities to design a specific plan for developing product chains to fully tap their respective potentials while avoiding overlaps.

The Association of Tourism in Ho Chi Minh City highlighted the central role of Quang Ninh in the linkage, saying it should be the the bridge connecting the city with the vicinity.

During the event, five cooperation agreements were signed by the eight localities to develop tourism products, conduct promotion campaigns, improve human resources, call for investment and strengthen the management of tourism.

Quang Ninh has diverse landscapes and culture, such as the highlight Ha Long Bay, which has been declared by UNESCO as a natural World Heritage Site for its remarkable beauty and geology.

Together with the neighbouring Bai Tu Long Bay, they form a tourism complex with thousands of islands, considered the most valuable biological and geographical assets of the country and the world.

The province is also home to the Yen Tu relic site with more than 600 relic sites and landscapes, which have been shaped along with the nation’s history.

Quang Ninh attracts around 7 million visitors a year. Five million are domestic visitors but only 7 percent come from Ho Chi Minh City.

Mekong forums discuss sustainable tourism development

Representatives from private and public tourism sectors, social and development organisations, and media from the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) gathered in the central city of Da Nang on June 15 for a forum to discuss measures to promote sustainable tourism development in the region.

The annual forum aims to introduce trends and tourism development and seek effective ways to strengthen the tourism industry in the GMS, which boasts the most rapid development speed in Asia and Pacific Ocean.

During the five-day event, participants emphasised the importance of boosting connectivity and partnership among travel agencies and tourism sectors in GMS nations to fully tap the potential of the region and turn it into a unique tourist destination.

Steven Schipani, an expert from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Laos said it is necessary to develop tourism in such a way that benefits the community and ensures environmental protection.

ADB is involved in tourism initiatives in the GMS because it sees strong tourism management in the region and the sector is supporting poverty reduction efforts and pushing economic growth in GMS countries, he noted.

Statistics revealed that around 52 million tourists visited the GMS in 2013, up 17 percent from 2012. Since 2002, the number of foreign arrivals to the region has increased about 12 percent per year, helping the GMS account for 3 percent of the global tourism market share.

As part of efforts to facilitate win-win economic cooperation among GMS countries including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, and China’s Yunnan and Guangxi provinces, this year’s forum is discussing topics related to cuisine tourism, discovery tourism, community-based tourism, transnational culture tourism and the use of social media for marketing and luring travellers to the region.

VNA/VOV/Tuoitrenews