The ancient town of Hoi An, a World Heritage site in the central Quang Nam province on June 4 launched a tourism month, featuring the region’s beauty, traditional arts, and sports.
The festival is being held as part of the National Tourism Year 2006 “Quang Nam – Two world heritages at one destination” campaign, which kicked off in February.
Twenty events will be held during the month, under the theme "Hoi An - Summer Feelings", the organizers said, adding that the festival would be different from the two previous ones to avoid monotony and provide guests more opportunities to discover the region’s lifestyle.
The highlights will include kite-flying performances, a sand sculpting contest on the beach, demonstration of sports like parasailing and yachting, and traditional folk games of Quang Nam province where Hoi An is situated.
Also on the cards are a graffiti contest, best waiter contest, Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) gong festival, and Don Village elephant hunting festival, all organized for the first time in Hoi An.
Visitors can take part in cultural and sports activities on Cham Islet, and attend full-moon night festivals in Hoi An. They can also see stone sculptures created by 17 famous artists from Vietnam and six other countries at a month-long camp which ended this Friday (June 9), the organizers said.
“We are striving to draw the arrival of domestic visitors as the football World Cup, which kicks off on June 9 in Germany, will reduce the number of foreign tourists to the ancient town during the summer time.
“We plan to screen the cup at a 2000-seat hall in Hoang Dieu Street with commentary in both Vietnamese and English to better serve the tourists,” the organizers added.
The Summer Emotion Festival will wrap up with two fashion shows, one featuring modern clothes and the other traditional Vietnamese and Chinese costumes from many centuries ago.
The provincial tourism department expects the National Tourism Year 2006 activities to attract at least 2 million tourists.
Hoi An Ancient Town aqnd My Son Holy Land are two World Heritage Sites in Quang Nam. Since Hoi An ancient town and My Son Holy Land were named as World Heriatge sites in 1999, the number of tourists to the sites has risen 30 per cent, local authorities reported, adding that they estimated to welcome 900,000 last year.
Hoi An now has 1,000 ancient houses.
Young People
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