Tour operators said thousands of foreign visitors arrived in Ha Long, Hue, and Da Nang for New Year’s Day.

Saigontourist received more than 1,300 tourists on board the cruise ship Costa Allegra which docked at Ha Long Bay on February 7. The vessel, which earlier took the visitors to Hue, Hoi An, and Da Nang, leaves Ha Long for China today.

The HCM City-based tour operator also welcomed foreign tourists from the SuperStar Libra which docked in Ha Long Bay on February 8.

Hue welcomed some 8,000 visitors, most of them foreigners, on New Year, three times last year’s number.

The director of Hue Centre for Monument Conservation, Phung Phu, said on the first three days of the year there had been 20,000 visitors, 60 per cent of them foreign tourists.

The director of the Khanh Hoa Tourism Department, Tran Son Hai, said the warm weather in Nha Trang had helped attract a large number of visitors – 30 per cent more than last year – this Tet. He said all hotels and guesthouses in the province were fully booked for months after Tet.

The number of Viet Kieu (Overseas Vietnamese) booking tours with local tour operators increased by 30 per cent over 2007.

According to the HCM City Tourism Department, despite an increase of 15 to 20 per cent in tour prices, the number of people signing up for domestic and overseas tours in the city had risen by 30 per cent over last year.

Vietravel said it 7,500 people had bought its tours, including over 3,000 overseas tours.

Saigontourist reported that more than 7,000 people had booked its tours, 40 per cent of them opting for expensive foreign tours to Australia, Europe, Japan, and the US.

(Source: VNA)