National Day celebrations in focus

Many tourism sites in Vietnam have attracted a large numbers of holiday-goers and tourists.
Ha Quang Long, Director of the Quang Ninh provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, says tourist arrivals in Ha Long Bay in recent days have risen more than 30 percent compared to a year earlier and 90 percent of hotel rooms and tourism ships have been booked in advance.
Tourism sites such as Cat Ba and Do Son in Haiphong have received more than 10,000 visitors. Tourism ships at Binh Wharf are in full operation.
From September 1-3, the ancient capital city of Hue received nearly 20,000 visitors, including nearly 1,000 foreigners. Tourism sites, such as Royal Palace, Thien Mu pagoda, Huyen Tran cultural centre, Chin Ham historical relics site, Hue gardens, Phuoc Tich ancient village, and Thanh Toan bridge were overcrowded with both domestic and foreign tourists.
During these holidays, tourist arrivals in Danang rose by 15-20 percent over normal days as travel agents offered many promotional tours and programmes. For example, Vietdatravel has launched domestic tours at prices which are 49 percent lower than usual.
Travel agents in coordination with hotels, restaurants and aviation agencies have offered many promotional and discount programmes to attract visitors.
Binh Thuan province claims that as many as 180,000 tourists, including 61,000 foreigners, came to Ham Tien-Mui Ne, and Hon Rom in Phan Thiet City from August 29-September 3.
Nguyen Van Khoa, President of the Binh Thuan Provincial Tourism Association, says huge crowds of foreigners flocked to Phan Thiet to attend the International Hot Air Balloon Festival.
Since early this year, the island district of Con Dao in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province has welcomed more than 61,000 visitors, up 40 percent, and earned VND186 billion, up 106 percent compared to the same period last year.