The figure included 535,100 foreigners, a 32.5 percent rise. In addition to visitors from its traditional markets including France, Japan, Britain and the US, the number of Thai and Chinese tourists travelling to Hue on road also increased sharply. In three days from August 28-30, the Hue Green International Travel Centre welcomed a group of 1,300 Thai tourists on a Thailand-Laos-Vietnam cars tour.

Visitors who travelled to Hue by sea and rail ways have also markedly increased.

This year, the province has put 700 more hotel-rooms into use, with a total estimated investment of 700 billion VND. Especially, a private company has invested 10 million USD in a five-star resort, named Pilgrimage Village, which has 99 rooms in villas and bungalows, restaurants, bars, a spa and sports area.

Thua Thien-Hue now has 149 hotels and rest houses with 5,200 rooms.

(Source: VN

The conference also aims to raise the effect of investment promotion activities; coordinate the investment promotion activities between different ministries, industries and all provinces nationwide in a unifying general program; coordinate these activities with the trade, tourism promotion activities and other related fields.

The conference is scheduled to take place in Binh Duong Province from November 15 to 20, 2009 with participations of representatives from some provincial and municipal People’s Committees, the tourism-related ministries and industries, international organizations, domestic and international enterprises, research agencies, provincial agencies managing culture, sports and tourism fields in the Southern.

Entrusted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Department of Planning and Finance will cooperate with Ministry Office, representative agency of Ministry Office in Ho Chi Minh City and Viet Media JSC. to organize this conference.

Present at the event, hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, were Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung and Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee Pham Quang Nghi and Chairman of Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen The Thao.

Close to 1,000 artists, actors and actresses entertained local audiences with special art performances that feature the most typical cultural characters of Thang Long-Hanoi and promote the city’s friendly and attractive images to visitors.

In connection with celebrations of the capital’s 1,000th founding anniversary, the National Tourism Year 2010 will include nine major programmes and almost 30 activities combining tourism with culture and sports.

This will be a chance for the city’s tourism industry to improve the quality of its services, facilities and human resources, in a bid to become an attractive tourist destination in the region and the world at large.

Nearly 100 pictures on display at the “Hanoi Today” exhibition were shot by Dominique de Miscault, a French painter, sculptor and installation artist.

The photos are only part of a collection of thousands of pictures Dominique had taken during her visits to Vietnam.

“I first came to Vietnam in 1992 and I have been back more than 20 times. Each time I wander around the streets, I can feel apparent changes in the people’s life there, especially in Hanoi which has become richer and larger,” the painter said. “I hope it can preserve its unique attraction forever,” she added.

So far, Dominique de Miscault has organised 15 exhibitions under various themes on the life and culture of Vietnamese people throughout France and Vietnam and published the “Hanoi Today” book.

As an editor-in-chief of the France-Vietnam Perspective Magazine, a publication by the France-Vietnam Friendship Association, Dominique has written many articles about the country and people of Vietnam as well as the traditional friendship between the two countries.

She has frequently joined in fund-raising activities to support victims of Agent Orange/dioxin in Vietnam.

For her significant contributions, she was awarded the “For the Cause of the Vietnamese Press” Medal by the Vietnam Journalists Association in 2006.