The number of visitors attracted topopular and well known Vietnamese tourist spots rose sharply during theLiberation Day holiday period, from April 30 to May 3.

Around 500,000 tourists flocked to Ha Long Bay, a world naturalheritage, to attend the 2010 Ha Long Tourism Festival (Carnival HaLong), resulting in hotels, restaurants and tourist services becomingoverloaded. The average price of accommodation increased by as much astwo or five times, with some even ten times more expensive, compared tonormal.

More than 500 boats that service the tourist trade in Ha Long Bay ranat full capacity, carrying almost 5,000 visitors per day.

It was a similar scenario in Sa Pa in the northern mountainousprovince of Lao Cai , where around 15,000 tourists made the journeyto enjoy the 2010 “In the Clouds” Festival.

According to the Culture and Eco-Tourism Centre at Phong Nha-KeBang National Park , the number of visitors to the Phong Nha-Ke Bangcaves in the central province of Quang Binh reached over 19,000, arecord figure for the park since it opened.

Lao Bao and Khe Sanh, two new destinations in the central provinceof Quang Tri , also attracted nearly 50,000 tourists over the April30-May 1 holiday. Everyday, between 5,000 and 6,000 people from acrossthe country and Laos and Thailand visited the areas to gosightseeing at the former US war battlefield as well as to shop atborder trade centres.

The central province of Quang Nam , which is home to two worldcultural heritages, Hoi An Ancient Town and the My Son Sanctuary, saw asudden rise in the number of visitors with more than 3,000 rooms in 82hotels and guesthouses being booked weeks in advance.

Other destinations such as Sam Son in Thanh Hoa province, Cua Lo in NgheAn province and the ancient capital of Hue also received theirlargest-ever number of tourists over the four-day holiday period./.