Hanoi (VNA) – Up to 228,900 visitors arrived in Hanoi during the New Year holiday2018 from December 30 – January 1, up 11 percent annually, according to the municipalDepartment of Tourism. 

Of them,68,900 were foreigners, marking a 29 percent increase. The number of foreigntourists staying overnight in Hanoi was estimated at 53,000, up 39 percentyear-on-year.

The totalrevenue from tourism rose by 17 percent to 755 billion VND (33.5 million USD).

Majortourist attractions include Van Mieu – Quoc Tu Giam, Imperial Citadel of ThangLong, Hoan Kiem walking street, and Huong Son relic site.

Meanwhile inthe central province of Thua Thien – Hue, more than 30,000 visited Hue heritagesites, including over 24,000 foreigners, said Director of the Hue MonumentsConservation Centre Phan Thanh Hai.

On January1, the US native Allicock Stephangary aboard the Vietnam Airlines flight fromHanoi to Hue was welcomed in Phu Bai international airport as the first visitorin the province in 2018.

Last year,the centre welcomed over 3 million tourists, including more than 1.8 million foreigners,earning roughly 318 billion VND.

Nguyen VanPhuc, Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Tourism, said theprovince strives to lure 4-4.2 million holidaymakers in 2018, up 10-12 percent,40-45 percent of them will be foreigners. Tourism earnings will increase byaround 15 percent to 4.2-4.3 trillion VND.

The provinceplans to hold a series of cultural, art and sports activities to attractvisitors, expand new tourism markets via partnering with airlines and twinninglocalities, and offer famtrip and presstrip to foreign travelling and pressagencies from major markets in Europe, the Republic of Korea, Japan, SoutheastAsia, North America and Australia, he said.-VNA