The information was released on April 9 by the Director of Bac Ninh Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Dang Tuc.

In addition to recognizing 40 Quan Ho artists, Bac Ninh Province will upgrade the Quan Ho Folk Song troupe to the Quan Ho Folk Song Theatre and establish a Faculty for Quan Ho at the provincial culture and arts college.

The province will also support Quan Ho by restoring some traditional festivals, collecting Quan Ho melodies, and publishing recordings to introduce the art form to domestic and foreign audiences.

Bac Ninh now has three Ca Tru clubs and is one of 15 provinces nationwide where Ca Tru is performed.

The six-day festival, organised by the Department of Performing Arts under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, provides a chance for Vietnamese artists to exchange experiences with their colleagues from other countries and to promote the country’s traditional puppetry.

The jury, including three international members and two Vietnamese ones, will select outstanding puppetry performances for gold, silver and bronze prizes as well as the best director and the best artists.

The closing and awarding ceremony will take place in the evening of September 9.

However, tourism promotion work has not yet received appropriate investment, said Tuan, who stressed the need to have the involvement of many relevant units.

According to La Quoc Khanh, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, to boost tourism effectively, Vietnam needs to open tourism representative offices overseas, especially in ten key markets.

The VNAT should coordinate with the national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines to provide information on Vietnamese destinations for tourists as well as join foreign travel agencies in holding promotional programmes, he said.

Paul Stoll, a representative from HCMC-based Celadon International Group, affirmed that Vietnam should boost promotion campaigns based on tourism products such as hotels, tours, transport, aviation, entertainment, food, art and historical relics to build and consolidate its trademark.

President of France’s Interface Tourism Gael de la Porte du Thei said that Vietnam should take advantage of the Internet’s existing strengths to improve the effectiveness of promotion work along with studying tourism demands in key markets and increasing the quality of services.

In the first quarter of this year, the VNAT will organise tourism promotion campaigns in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany and Russia in a new and more professional way.

Roam takes as its starting point the human requirement to explore and experience, and incorporates the work of poet Rick Holland.

The piece explores the concept of roaming through life, according to founder and choreographer Tom Dale.

Tom Dale creates collaborative performance work through dance with the aim of creating a unique and rich form of expression that reaches out and excites new audiences.

Award winning dancer/choreographer Tom Dale founded the Tom Dale Company in 2001. An involvement in electronic music encouraged Tom to seek out a career in dance.

In 2006 he was a semi-finalist for the prestigious Place Prize with Whose Futures in London and his company’s most recent work Rise was featured as part of Spring Loaded 2008 following a UK tour and successful run at Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He was part of Europe in Motion, Spring Dance Festival 2009.

The piece was created with support from the Laban Theatre, DanceXchange, Dance Digital, the Garrick Charitable Trust and Arts Council England.

The Hanoi performance of Roam took place at 8pm on June 6 at the Youth Theatre, 11 Ngo Thi Nham Street.

As the British Council’s contribution to the Hue Festival this year, the performance will take place at 7.30pm on June 9 and at 8.30pm on June 10 at Thai Hoa Eastern Stage, Royal Citadel.

Tickets can be purchased at every Festival box-office in Hue City.