A wealth of information and images promoting Vietnam’s natural beauty, history, culture and achievements were displayed prominently at the fair.

Tran Mai Lan, Vietnam Airlines’ representative at the event, said that her company has been involved in the fair for the past few years, which is important as Belgium has recently established itself as one of the airline’s most lucrative Western European markets.

Despite the difficulties facing the transport and tourism sectors as a result of the global economic crisis, a number of experts at the fair asserted that Asia, particularly Vietnam, is still a destination that possesses a great deal of allure for European holidaymakers this year.

As previously scheduled, the 6th Culture, Sports and Tourism Festival of Ethnic Minority Groups in the Northeastern Region and the 3rd Culture Festival of Bac Giang Province was to have taken place in Bac Giang Province between November 8th and 10th, 2008.

However, the heavy rains and flooding over the past several days in many provinces and cities in Northern Vietnam have greatly affected the regions socio-economics as well as the lives of local people.

Confronted with the situation, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has decided to delay the festival.

A new date and schedule will be announced by the organizing board later.

The article, entitled “Coming to Vietnam a week, wanting to stay there forever”, was published on “ Moscow afternoon” newspaper on September 22, 2008 with a series of photographs on military parade, President Ho Chi Minh, rice harvest and roads with bicycles.

The Vietnamese people not only love and are proud of their country but also very hospitable, the newspaper said, adding that Vietnam has potential of tourism as the country boasts a warm year-round climate, beautiful beaches with white sand and many landscapes.

With impressive achievements on socio-economic development, Vietnam is emerging as a tourism destination for international travelers who, once live and travel in Vietnam, will enjoy cheaper service charges than other developing countries in the world and will feel safety and freedom, the newspaper said.

In particular, the SuperStar Aquarius, with more than 1,300 tourists, will dock at Halong Port on November 4th. The tourists are mainly from Hong Kong and China. This will be one of nine upcoming routes of the SuperStar Aquarius to Vietnam. The Super Star Aquarius docked in Vietnam for the first time on June 19th, 2007.

Also, on November 4th, at Saigon Port, the Saigon Travel Service Company (Saigontourist) will greet nearly 1,350 tourists from the Costa Allegra. The tourists are mainly from Italy, Spain and Britain.

And on November 11th, the company will continue to welcome more than 1,000 tourists from the SuperStar Aquarius at Tien Sa Port, and the tourists will stay at Danang for one day.