The expanded pedestrian area currently boasts many Hanoi treasures, such as architectural works dating back to the 18th -19th centuries. Prominent are historic sites such as Bach Ma temple, Quan De communal house and Huong Tuong temple, an ancient house at 87 Ma May street.

The ancient streets are also well known for Hanoi specialties, such as preserved fruits, confectionery, rice and pork paste, shrimp cakes and fried noodles.

Thuy said development of restaurants and food shops along the streets with diverse types of dishes partially meet the demand of tourists, especially foreigners.

He expressed his belief in the project because his company has eight years of managing the Hang Dao – Dong Xuan night market on weekends.

Formed in the early 15th century and boasting a total area of 81 hectares, the Hanoi Old Quarter in Hoan Kiem district now has a boundary of Hang Dau street in the north, Hang Bong, Hang Gai, Cau Go and Hang Thung streets in the south, Tran Nhat Duat and Tran Quang Khai streets in the east and Phung Hung street in the west.

The quarter gathers residents with small handicraft and trade activities, forming specific craft streets. With the unique architecture of 121 historic sites and nearly 1,100 old houses, the quarter is the favourite destination for foreign tourists.

Twenty one participating units from 12 cities and provinces have brought thousands of dishes, both traditionally and modernly, to the festival.

As part of the National Tourism Year South Central Coast – Phu Yen 2011, themed “Sea and Islands Tourism”, the four-day festival offers an opportunity for tourist organisations from the northern, central and southern regions of the country to promote their tourism products and help local people study the cuisine culture of each region.

This is also a chance for Phu Yen province to promote its image as well as special dishes to domestic and foreign visitors.
(Source: VNA

It earned nearly VND600 billion from tourism services, up 21 percent compared to the same period last year.

The provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism said thanks to favourable weather condition, the number of tourists to the province rose sharply over the past two months, leading to a considerable increase in hotel occupation rates.

Three-four star hotels in Cua Lo town and Vinh City occupied 80 percent or even 95-100 percent.

Along with the project exhibition, CLMV countries’ tourism ministers will update tourism development strategies to investors.

The high-ranking officials and investors will discuss investment policies, ways to link transport systems for tourism development of the four countries and good policies to woo investment for hospitality services.

Topics on tourism-entertainment complex development and the strong growth rate of investing in luxury resorts in the countries will all feature in the forum.

“The main theme of this year’s travel expo is four countries – one destination. In the exhibition we will focus on promoting our common tourism potential of the world heritage sites,” La Quoc Khanh, deputy head of the event’s organizing committee, said in a meeting to promote the Expo last Friday in HCMC.

It will take place from September 14 to 17 at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center in District 7. The event will feature a tourism exhibition, buyers-and-sellers meetings, conferences and other promotions.

“We’ve extended the event to four days instead of three due to exhibitors’ requests. Hospitality players will have two days to meet with wholesale partners and two days to promote their products and services to the public,” Khanh said.

To date, the organizing committee has received registrations for 137/220 booths of the expo. Exhibitors come from 16 provinces and cities in the country, 12 big tourism companies and 11 foreign tourism promotion departments. Around 174 foreign buyers have registered to join the event.

Airlines such as Vietnam Airlines, Turkish Airlines and Philippines Airlines have put their names down to bring foreign tour operators and buyers to the event.

Nguyen Huu Tho, chairman of the HCMC Tourism Association, said that previous travel expos brought business chances for entrepreneurs. “We’ve met good partners and found business opportunities via the events. We are encouraging our members to attend the Expo,” he said at the meeting.

Located in the two communes of Vinh Tien and Vinh Long in Vinh Loc district, the citadel measuring 870m by 833m was built in 1397.

The citadel’s construction was supervised by the Tran dynasty’s top mandarin, Ho Quy Ly, who later occupied the citadel when he forcibly took the throne in 1400, changing the country’s name from Dai Viet to Dai Ngu.

Ho Quy Ly’s rise to power began the short-lived Ho dynasty, and that is why the citadel is still known as the Ho Dynasty Citadel.

Also known as the Tay Do Citadel, the ancient building is famous for being strategically located in the position that can ensure it is easily defended. The citadel is shielded by a mountain range to the north, while the Ma River runs to the west and the Buoi River to the south, creating a huge natural moat.

Unlike many other citadels that were built from bricks, the Ho Dynasty Citadel was built with huge stone slabs from nearby mountains. It features four arched entrances facing east, west, north and south.

With UNESCO’s recognition of the Ho Dynasty Citadel, Vietnam now has seven World Heritage sites, including Hoi An ancient town in Quang Nam Province, the former royal capital of Hue, My Son sanctuary, Ha Long Bay, Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, and Thang Long-Hanoi Citadel remains.

The first meeting of the Steering Committee and the Organizing Board for the 2012 National Tourism Year recently took place in the old imperial city of Hue. Thua Thien Hue Province will host nine master events during the year.
The Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism will get together with related ministries and sectors to launch other programs in Hue within the framework of the 2012 National Tourism Year. These will include a program entitled, “Vietnamese Businesses & National Culture, Heritage” (expected for launching in February 2012), a program entitled, “Vietnamese Charm 2012″ (to be held in March 2012), a second international chorus festival, a Southeast Asia international chess competition (to be kicked off in June 2012), an international U18 tennis tournament, a national traditional martial art championship, and more. Minister of Culture, Sport and Tourism Hoang Tuan Anh adopted the theme for the 2012 National Tourism Year focusing on heritage tourism, northern central coastal provinces and Hue and linking the annual event with the 2012 Hue Festival. For this reason, Anh asked the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism and related departments/agencies to work with Thua Thien Hue and other provinces in the region to quickly complete the plan for the year for adoption by the minister and submission to the second meeting of the Steering Committee this coming September.

The refurbishment of Uncle Ho memorial area, located in Ca Mau city’s Cultural Park, is to celebrate the 121 st birthday of the late President and the 100 th anniversary of the day he left the nation to seek pathways for national salvation.

Addressing the ceremony, President Triet applauded the contributions made by the provincial Party Committee, authorities and people to the project, which, he said, reflect their deep sentiments towards beloved Uncle Ho.

He also recalled Uncle Ho’s affections towards people in the southern region when the he was alive.

The cultural work is of special significance that helps educate young generations about national traditions, President Triet said, urging local leaders and investors to step up the construction process and ensure the quality of the project.

The memorial area covers an area of 60,700 sq. m, of which 12,000 sq. m are roomed for Uncle Ho’s relic site. It is being constructed at an investment capital of 30 billion VND funded by the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group.

Foreign tourists walk along Le Loi Street in downtown of HCMC on Tuesday. The city government wants to have a tourist police bureau to protect tourists
La Quoc Khanh, deputy director of the city’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, told the Daily that the city as the country’s biggest tourism center welcoming some 60% of international visitors to the country needs a professional team to protect tourists.

“Because of lacking police (in the previous years), the city has established teams of tourist security guards to carry out the mission but HCMC is the big tourism center so we really wants tourist police to better cater to visitors,” he said.

Khanh said the city government had just asked relevant departments to consider the plan and need more time to translate it into reality. “(It is) because the plan needs to be approved by higher ministries,” he said.

Both tourism officials and entrepreneurs have many times asked for the establishment of a police agency to cater to tourists like in other countries such as Thailand and Hong Kong.

In 2006, the city established the tourist guard team with members recruited from the HCMC Voluntary Youth League to serve as security guards. The team now has nearly 200 members serving tourists in downtown areas and tourist sites.

Feedbacks from tourists in the year to date have shown incidents occurring to them, especially harassments by vendors and pickpockets, according to the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Many tourists have lost personal belongings like cameras, cash, and cards and even their carrying bags.

“The security guards helped tourists in many cases but the team does not have strong capacity to carry out the mission,” he said.

International arrivals in HCMC in the first half this year total an estimated 1.65 million, up 10% year-on-year.

The exhibition, entitled “Land of Hidden Charms”, is the first of its kind opened at the Vietnamese Embassy in the UK so far. It features ten paintings, including the “Girl with Lotus Flower” by Nguyen Thanh Binh, “The Hue Style” by Do Duy Tuan, “Ancient Streets in Rains” by Duong Ngoc Son and “Entering the Spring” by Pham Hong Son.

The Vietnamese Embassy in London and the Oc-Eo Art Gallery have previously jointly held a number of exhibitions of Vietnam’s paintings, including one at the Asian House in London in April 2009 and another on the occasion of the Vietnamese Cultural Day in the UK in October 2009.

Gilbert Whelan said Vietnam had almost all necessary elements to strongly develop MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing and Exhibitions) tourism, namely social stability, meetings infrastructure, convention centres, resorts that met international standards as well as an attractive culture and enthusiastic customer-care services.

There were direct flights between Vietnam and other promising MICE markets in Asia, Europe and America. A long and beautiful coast and a number of international standard hotels and resorts were major advantages that Vietnam had developed.

Some destinations, such as Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, were very familiar with tourists. The new trend was to find new destinations for conferences and reward ceremonies and Vietnam had distinct advantages. In particular, competitive prices were examined by tourists when choosing their destinations, especially during the crises in the global economy, he said.

However, the country’s advertisements in MICE tourism and general images of tourism failed to show signs of confidence.

Whelan suggested that to create an attractive Vietnam among MICE tourists, the first and most important element for Vietnam was to gather relevant businesses to create their own style with impressive products and services.

He said that it was “a must” to carefully select products for marketing Vietnam’s tourism, such as video clips, tourism publications, cuisine and culture.

Statistics showed that domestic and foreign MICE visitors constantly increased in recently years.

Sai Gon Tourism Corporation (Saigontourist) was a favourite agency for Premier Oil and QBE Insurance foreign MICE tours. Meanwhile, Vietravel had partnered with large firms like Robot, Manulife, 4 Oranges, Sony Vietnam, United Farmar Rich, Massan and Nokia when they organised MICE events.