It aims to attract more visitors from Cambodia to Vietnam via the trans-Asia road.

In recent years, Siem Riep Province has taken part in many cultural and arts activities in Hoi An, including cultural exchanges in the “Quang Nam Festival – Heritage Journey”.

This was reported by relevant ministries and agencies at a hearing hosted by the National Assembly’s Council for Ethnic Minorities (CEM) in Hanoi on July 22.

According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, thanks to the programme, which aims to raise public awareness and mobilise the entire society’s strength in developing cultural values so as to make culture a momentum for national industrialisation and modernisation, many historical and cultural relics have become tourism and cultural products, helping develop the country’s tourism sector.

The programme has attached importance to promoting the values of intangible cultural through promotion campaigns.

It has also invested VND 3.4 billion in restoring 38 outstanding traditional festivals of ethnic groups.

At the hearing, the Ministry of Finance suggested a stricter control over the implementation of the programme, ensuring the fulfillment of its set objectives by 2010 and building the programme for the 2011-2015 period.

CEM Vice Chairman Ma Dien Cu asked to strengthen investigative work, examine State budget spending, address violations and assess the responsibilities of relevant ministries and localities.

The programme, which includes nine projects, has a total investment capital of over VND 4.5 trillion, of which VND 2.5 trillion is sourced from the State budget.

Bui Viet Thuy Tien, director of Asian Trails Co., Ltd, one of the three local tour operators to serve such tourists, said on July 28 that the first chartered flight would arrive at Tan Son Nhat International Airport from Sweden on December 2. Since then, an Airbus A330 plane will bring special tourists to the city every Wednesday until March of 2010.

“We’ve finished agreements with our partner to welcome the tourists. This is a good deal at a time the number of international tourist arrivals is declining,” she said.

She said that the tourists would come on tours arranged by three Swedish companies. Most of the visitors are from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.

Guests will have two-week tours in the country including two to three days in HCMC, and spend their time in beaches like Phu Quoc, Nha Trang and Phan Thiet.

“We (Asian Trails) will receive about 160 to 170 tourists per week or half of the total number of visitors from the flight, while two other travel companies in the city will serve the remaining number,” Tien said.

She projected that the number of international tourists served by her company in August and September would fall down by around 30 to 40% compared to the same period of last year. New bookings for the high season of the inbound tourism segment late this year are not promising, she added.

“Some foreign partners have said that bookings for the Vietnam destination are increasing but we have yet to receive a good signal about any recovery in tourist arrivals,” Tien said.

While most of tourists catered to by the company are European, the company is developing new markets to attract more tourists to Vietnam.

“We have made a business trip to Australia in June and set up ties with two new partners there,” Tien said, adding her company would receive first tourists arranged by the Australian partner in November.

Vice chairman of the State Duma and Vice chairman of the Communist Party of Russia Federation (KPRF) Ivan Melnikov, leader of the Moscow City Duma Communist Party faction and second secretary of Moscow City’s Communist Party Committee Vladimir Lakeev, and first vice chairman of the Vietnam-Russia Friendship Association Evgheni Kobelev attended the event.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Vladimir Lakeev said the exhibition features Vietnam’s rich culture and great socio-economic achievements the Vietnamese people have gained under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV).

He said the event also reflects Vietnam-Russia political, economic and cultural relations which help promote the two countries’ friendship and traditional cooperation.

Vietnamese ambassador in Russia Bui Dinh Dinh expressed his thanks to the Moscow City Duma for its assistance to organise the event. He introduced Russians 40 photos depicting Vietnam’s famous landscapes such as Halong Bay, the old imperial city of Hue, Ba Dinh Square and people’s daily life.

The exhibition which was co-organised by the Vietnamese embassy in Russia and the Russia-Vietnam Friendship Association also aims to celebrate the 59th anniversary of the establishment of the two countries’ diplomatic ties.