Phong Nha National Park has been voted as one of the most incredible cave sites in the world by the multi-award winning Wanderlust – a leading magazine for adventurous and authentic travel.

The northern province of Quang Ninh received nearly 2 million visitors in the first two months of the year, up three per cent from the same period last year with international visitor numbers increasing by 10 per cent, according to the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Transport authorities in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday unveiled a new bus service between Tan Son Nhat Airport and the city's downtown area.
The service, promised with "high quality," came as existing routes failed to attract both locals and foreign visitors.

From March 9^th to 13^th, Vietnam delegation presided by the National Administration of Tourism will attend the ITB Berlin 2016 – the world's largest tourism fair. This is a great opportunity for international businesses to meet and share experiences as well as create business cooperation. It is also the chance for visitors to know about new tourism trends, innovative business models, best practice and new hot destinations around the world.

Ethnic groups in the northern mountainous province Bac Kan held the Long Tong (Going to the field) festival on February 16-17 (the ninth and tenth days of the first lunar month) at Ba Be Lake in Nam Mau Commune, Ba Be District.

During the two day event, locals from Tay, Mong, and Dao ethnic minority groups in Ba Be and Cho Don Districts, as well as visitors, flocked to Ba Be Lake for the annual festival - a tradition of the Tay ethnic group.

The festival began with a traditional offering ritual of local specialties to gods to pray for favourable weather and healthy crops as well as health and a happy life.

The event also featured a wide variety of cultural and arts activities, attracting a large number of local people and visitors.

In addition, numerous traditional folk games were held, such as bull fighting, bit mat bat de (catching a ball while blindfolded), con throwing (a game throwing a cloth ball), and dug-out canoe racing, with decorations of floating flower garlands and coloured lanterns.

Joining the festival, in addition to enjoying the beautiful and imposing scenes of Ba Be Lake, visitors had a chance to learn more about the lives and traditional culture of the local ethnic people.

Long Tong Festival in Ba Be has been a tourist attraction on the occasion of the Lunar New Year for many years.

Source: NDO

Under the theme “Bringing traditional silk to modern life”, the Viet Nam-Asia Silk Festival 2016 will be held in Hoi An city (Quang Nam province) on 28 and 29 March, 2015 by Hoi An Silk Village - one of the founders of the Asia Silk Alliance and of the International Silk Union.

It’s also a major cultural highlight of the myriad of events celebrating the 41st anniversary of this world cultural heritage city.

Coming to the festival, tourists can enjoy many interesting activities such as the thurification for Quang land’s Queen of Silk, introducing and performing traditional worm silk weaving techniques of the Tan Chau silk craft village, the Cham traditional patterns for wedding, the Catu traditional brocade weaving, the natural worm silk of Bac Giang province; introducing some modern silk products from 7 typical Vietnamese silk craft villages; Vietnamese traditional cuisine “Countryside Soul”…

Besides, artisans, fashion designers and silk businesses from Viet Nam, Thailand, India, Japan and China will exchange silk making experiences at a seminar themed “Silk in modern life”. An exhibition of silk products of the ASEAN countries will also be held in the festival.

By V.LOC – M.HAI

As I sit sipping an iced coffee on the sidewalk with my colleagues in Ho Chi Minh City, inevitably, somebody brings up the fact that Tet is approaching “What are people doing ?” ask my friend.

Between 20 and 27 February, various activities will be held along both banks of the Han River. Included are an impressive street music performance on Bach Dang’s riverside walk at 7.30pm on 20 February, and the dragon's head breathing fire and squirting water at the eastern end of the Rong (Dragon) Bridge at 9.00pm on 20 and 27 February. In addition, a musical performance will be held at a park near the western end of the Rong (Dragon) Bridge from 7.30am – 8.30am on 21 February, whilst a Tuong (classical drama) street performance will take place from 7.30pm - 9.30pm on the same day at a park near its eastern end.

A cultural festival of the Mong ethic minority group took place in Meo Vac District in the northernmost province of Ha Giang on 22 February.

The special event, which aimed to preserve and display the cultural values and mysteries of the Mong's customs and habits at Dong Van Plateau, attracted a great number of visitors.

"After the success of the first cultural festival of the Mong group last year, this year's event hoped to build a Vietnamese culture filled with national identities as well as to promote tourism," Nguyen Cao Cuong, chairman of Meo Vac District people's committee, said.

Visitors who love to explore cultural values got a chance to take part in many unique activities such as Gau Tao festival and Khen (a wind instrument) dancing festival, and to learn and experience traditional crafts, besides enjoying folk games such as tug of war and goat fights.

This year's festival featured more than 500 artisans, local actors and athletes from 18 communes of Meo Vac District.

Source: VNS