[jackbl]

Foreign visitors to Vietnam rise sharply during Tet
================================================== =====
VietNamNet Bridge – The Noi Bai International Airport received over 1,000 foreign holidaymakers during the first three days of the Lunar New Year (Tet) festival, according to the airport's Border Customs Agency.

Travelers were mostly from Europe and overseas Vietnamese who visited their homeland for the Tet holiday.

On the occasion, the airport's 82 flights brought nearly 8,000 visitors to countries and territories worldwide.

Meanwhile, the number of tourists to Hue on these days increased sharply, reaching about 50,000, some 20,000 higher than last year.

A large number of arrivals came from European countries, Japan and Thailand.

The ancient capital city celebrated the Tet festival with a wide range of activities and festivals launched in different localities, opening an array of this year's cultural, sports and tourism events to welcome the National Tourism Year to be organised in the city in 2012.

Tourism destinations of the Hue's relic site opened for free during the first three days of the Lunar New Year.




Flower Street attracts 800,000 residents, visitors

The HCM City's annual Nguyen Hue Flower Street attracted nearly 800,000 local and foreign visitors during the Tet holiday (Lunar New Year), organisers said.

After it opened on January 31 (December 28 in the lunar calendar), the flower street welcomed more than 100,000 city residents as well as visitors from neighbouring provinces and foreign countries each day, said Tran Hung Viet, deputy general director of Saigontourist and head of the 2011 Tet Festival organisation board.

This year's flower street, in its eighth annual edition, was themed Tam Cao Moi (New Heights), reflecting the city's aspiration to post greater socio-economic achievements.

Apart from floral bonanza in different spring themes, highlights this year included the 5m-high Cau Mua (Worshipping for Good Crops) Flower Tower that visitors could climb and get an overview of the whole street.

The flower street was closed for clearing on Sunday and reopened to traffic on February 7.


VietNamNet/Viet Nam News