According to the Department of Travel under VNAT, the Culture, Sports and Tourism departments in HCMC, Quang Ninh, Quang Nam and Danang as well as other relevant departments are taking part in the promotion activities.

China and Vietnam have agreed to cooperate to develop tourism products and to promote tourism.

The country’s tourism sector organized a similar program in Jiangsu Province on May 3.

The events have attracted about 100 Chinese tour operators, officials and media and Chinese tour operators and media have asked about Vietnam’s tourism incentives and policies to attract tourists from the neighboring country.

The program in Jiangsu Province had positive results as the two sides agreed to exchange familiarization trips to survey tourist attractions and to support programs to promote destinations. In addition, they agreed to cooperate to promote tourism on TV and in various other media and to cooperate to train human resources, especially tour guides.

Vu The Binh, Director of Department of Travel under VNAT, said that the administration had signed a memorandum of understanding to develop tourism with tourism bureaus in the two provinces.

Some local and Chinese enterprises pledged that they would send tourists to each other after the promotion program.

Binh said the tourism sector would also organize a similar promotion program in Shanghai.

VNAT reported that China is the tourism sector’s biggest source market. About 227,800 Chinese people have visited Vietnam already this year, up 115% year-on-year.

The tourism sector has increased promotion activities in China over the past two years to recover the number of travelers in the country.

Nearly 528,000 Chinese visitors visited Vietnam last year, still lower than the record number of 778,000 in 2004.

The tourism sector is more interested in Chinese tourists who travel to Vietnam with passports, as they spend more than others who travel with laissez-passer. Such travelers have ranked about 20% in total Chinese visitors to Vietnam in the past. However, the number increased to 50% last year.

The public interest in the festival testified to the extensive local development of the art form, said the organisers, who hope that tai tu will be granted national cultural heritage status.

Each troupe was required to perform both singing and instrumental performance based on a repertoire of 20 essential songs and a myriad of vong co (nostalgic tunes).

Tai tu is an important part of Southern cultural life and is usually performed among family or friends.

According to the Quang Ninh provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, all festive activities will be held in the city centre and the Bai Chay tourist resort.

Visitors to the city will have an opportunity to indulge in a vivid and colourful carnival, enjoy delicious food at a gastronomy fiesta and capture various photos of cultural activities such as lion dance festival and Halong beauty pageant.

The festival is aimed at promoting the tourism potentials of Quang Ninh Province and campaign for Halong Bay in the run for world’s seven new nature wonders. It is also an event that links to the East Asia Inter-regional Tourism Forum (EATOF) to be held in the province next year.

Nguyen Van Tuan, Director General of VNAT, said that the VNAT would ask its experts to quickly launch new criteria for selecting the new logo and slogan late this year to replace the current logo and slogan that reads ‘Vietnam – the Hidden Charm.’ “We need the new image late this year to prepare for marketing activities in the new stage of development in the 2011-15 period,” he said. In late 2005, Vietnam’s tourism authorities chose “Vietnam - the Hidden Charm” as the new slogan and a new logo for the national tourism industry’s action plan in the 2006-2010 period. Tuan said the past decade has seen a strong foundation built up for the development of the country’s tourism in the next stage. During the time, the tourism sector has made efforts to develop infrastructure, human resources and the brand name. Now the new stage calls for a new image, he said. “Vietnam is becoming a popular destination to international travelers. We see the next stage as a period of stronger development so the new slogan must convey such contents,” he said. Tuan said the national tourism agency would also encourage logo and slogan designers to suggest next activities to promote the country’s tourism. Regarding marketing activities for the tourism sector, the General Director of Saigontourist Holding Company Nguyen Huu Tho in a recent tourism meeting in HCMC suggested that VNAT call on high-ranking officials to join forces in the marketing campaign. “Many countries are doing like that. The marketing campaign will be made more effective if top officials of the country take a proactive role in promoting the tourism image in foreign countries,” said Tho. Tho said along with activities to promote the country’s tourism via foreign travel fairs and events, the tourism agency needs to organize more direct marketing activities to foreign partners. Tuan from VNAT is upbeat about the country’s tourism this year, saying the sector is receiving first good signals for the whole year. The hospitality sector welcomed nearly 878,000 foreign visitors in the first two months of this year, up 27.4% year-on-year, while the number of local travelers amounts to around 40% of the total number of last year. Last year, the tourism sector reported about 25 million local travelers.