In the first half of this year, the northern central province ofThanh Hoa earned more than 3.36 trillion VND (157 million USD), up 22.7percent from the same period last year.

Thetotal number of tourists to the province in the reviewed period exceeded3.3 million, including 57,700 foreigners, an increase of 16.2 percentfrom the same period last year.

The Sam Sonbeach resort town alone earned 1.23 trillion VND (57.5 million USD), up19.6 percent from the same period last year, with 2.5 million tourists.

The town plays a central role in promoting the province’s tourism potential in the National Tourism Year 2015.

The province aims to conduct a number of activities to promote local tourism development.

In the second half of the National Tourism Year 2015, Thanh Hoa willorganise a wide range of festivals including an international stonesculpture festival, the 2015 Lam Kinh festival and a UNESCO-recognisedintangible heritage festival.

Under the plan fortourism development from 2010- 2020, some 25 projects are beingimplemented to improve infrastructure facilities.

Currently, the province has 672 hotels and motels offering 15,000rooms. The province is encouraging enterprises to upgrade facilities anddevelop high-end resorts to lure more foreign and domestic tourists.

Over the past five years, Thanh Hoa has investedmore than 400 billion VND (18.7 million USD) in upgrading more than 200relics, including the Ho Dynasty Citadel in Vinh Loc district, the LamKinh national special relic site in Tho Xuan district and the Ham Rongtourism zone in Thanh Hoa city.-VNA