Total tourism turnover in the last 10 months was only VND 550 billion (USD 32 million), a decrease of 33 per cent compared to the same period last year, Thuy said. Nguyen Thi Thanh, sales and marketing manager at Hoi An Tourist Service Joint-Stock Company, said the number of local and foreign tourists was expected to fall from 20 per cent to 30 per cent for the rest of the year.

The majority of tourists in the first 10 months of the year were from the US, France and Germany.

Arfan Marwazi Ismail, general director of Hoi An Riverside Resort & Spa, said a lack of advertising and low quality services were also to blame.

The State should have better facilities, particularly for Australian and Japanese tourists, he said.

Claude M Balland, general director of Victoria Hoi An Beach Resort & Spa, said the most important factor was improving quality of services and training staff.

This is the second time the event has been organized since the Hue Festival 2008 to uphold the values of traditional Vietnamese culture, introducing Hue’s royal music, dance, costumes and customs.

The Xa Tac ceremony includes two parts - one for the king, his mandarins and troops to parade from the imperial palace and another at the Xa Tac altar.

The director of the Hue relics conservation centre, Phung Phu, said that in the past, the ritual was held twice a year to pray for peace and prosperity in the nation. It first appeared during the early Le Dynasty.

The exhibition was held following an initiative by Neuilly-sur-Seine’s Post Office which is coordinating with the Vietnamese Embassy and the Vietnamese Association in France on the occasion of the French post festival.

The exhibition focused on the on-going renewal process in Vietnam and the country’s integration into the world economy.

A collection of stamps on Ha Long Bay in Vietnam’s northern coal-mining province of Quang Ninh , which is slated to be issued in France in October, was also introduced on this occasion.

The festival, the first of its kind in Hoi An, a world cultural heritage, draws the participation of more than 300 local students and businesses, said the municipal People’s Committee deputy chairman, Nguyen Van Dung.

It will feature specific characteristics of people in the Northern, Central and the Southern Vietnam as well as cultures of Thailand, China, Japan, Australia and the Netherlands, he said.

“The festival’s message is that Vietnam wants be friend all other countries” Dung added.

During the event, a traditional art performance, a Merry Christmas ceremony, a cultural fair of ethnic groups and an exchange programme with foreigners will also be held to attract visitors.

Since early this year, the city has welcomed nearly 450,000 tourist arrivals, a year-on-year increase of 6 percent. Of the number, 320,000 were foreigners, up 7 percent over the same period last year.

Hoi An city was recognised as a world cultural heritage in 1999 by UNESCO.