Nearly 3,000 foreign tourists came and stayed in Hoi An ancient town to enjoy Vietnamese traditional Tet.

According to the Hoi An Chamber Tourism and Trade, the 3,000 foreign tourists stayed at 70 hotels in Hoi An town during the three Tet days. Together with 80,000 Hoi An residents, the foreign tourists joined the New Year Eve festival on Bach Dang and Le Loi roads, where they could enjoy the music and song programmes, and other traditional games.

During the Tet occasion, travel firms tried to launch many special programmes helping foreign tourists to enjoy a Vietnamese traditional Tet. The tours to rural areas to discover rural culture as well as the tours on enjoying Tet with the ancient town’s residents proved to be a favourite among foreign travellers.

The foreign travellers also joined the tour “one day of being a residents of the ancient town”, or the tours to trade villages, like Tra Que vegetable village, participated in the courses on Vietnamese cuisine.

Meanwhile, privately owned travel firms offered “homestay tours” which proved to be very attractive to foreigners. The tourists can stay with the residents’ homes, learn about the culture, manners and customs of Vietnamese people. A programme on learning about Vietnamese culture in rural areas was introduced, where 26 traditional trade villages with the culinary arts of the Vietnamese common people were shown to the travellers.

Nguyen Son Thuy, Deputy Director General of the Hoi An Travel Centre said that the centre has led several hundred Thai tourists to the central region. The tourists came on the Thailand – Sawanakhet – Central region of Vietnam route. In Vietnam, they stayed in Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An.

In early March 2007, the centre will receive a big delegation of 630 tourists who will come to Vietnam by land. After that, it will receive four Thai delegations (200 travellers for each delegation). Mr Thuy complains that the number of hotels and services is not enough to meet the demand of tourists. He said that from now to April will be the high tourism season.

The number of tourists flying from Thailand to the central region of Vietnam on the direct route Bangkok – Da Nang has been gradually increasing. Now PB Air offers three flights a week on every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

(Source: Vietnam Net)