Major cities welcome first tourists of 2018

The city’s first visitors who come from France were treated to art performances, and Vietnamese coffee and tea. They were also guided how to make “non la” (conical hats), flowers and locusts from coconut leaves.

Mbodj Camtam said she visits HCM City every New Year holiday, and travels to many locations like Phan Thiet and Binh Thuan with her family. She particularly noted the fusion of modernity and tradition in Vietnam’s development.

Tran Vinh Tuyen, Vice Chairman of HCM City People’s Committee, said the city served more than 6.38 million international holiday-makers in 2017, up 22.88% year-on-year. The number is expected to climb to 7.5 million this year.

In 2017, the southern hub served an estimated 24.98 million domestic tourists, a rise of 14.6% against 2016. The city aims to attract 29 million domestic vacationers and earn VND138 trillion (US$6.07 billion) from the tourism sector in 2018.

The municipal Department of Tourism also held a ceremony to greet the first domestic visitors of the year on early January 1.

The same day, the central city of Da Nang welcomed the year’s first tourists, who flew in from the Republic of Korea (RoK) on Vietjet’s VJ881 flight. Also on the morning of January 1, nearly 2,000 Chinese holiday makers arrived in the city on cruise liner MSC Lirica.

According to the municipal Department of Tourism, during the three-day New Year holiday from December 30, 2017 to January 1, 2018, the total number of tourists to Da Nang is estimated at nearly 143,000, up 17.9% year-on-year, of which over 81,500 are foreigners.

In 2017, Da Nang hosted 6.6 million visitors, a year-on-year increase of 19%, and earned over VND19.4 trillion (US$853.6 million) from tourism, up 20.6% over 2016 and fulfilling 104.9% of the set target.