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Intense tourist movements brought the Year of the Cat to Vietnam

Just the day before, 913 take-offs and landings with 144,871 travelers were reported at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in southern Ho Chi Minh City, the highest number since the festivities began.

The figure was much higher than that recorded at that capital’s Noi Bai international flight terminal, which recorded 536 flights, including 156 international ones, carrying around 85,000 passengers.

On the other hand, according to tourism ministry statistics cited by VNA news agency, during the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday, Hanoi was visited by around 332,000 visitors, including about 32,000 foreigners, bringing in more than $43 million of revenue.

In the northern province of Quang Ninh, 660,000 tourists interested in destinations such as the famous Halong Bay, the Yen Tu religious complex and the Ba Vang Pagoda in the city of Uong Bi arrived; the Cua Ong Temple in Cam Pha; and the Loi Am, Duc Ong, and Long Tien Pagodas, all in Ha Long City.

Another attractive tourist pole, the municipality of Sa Pa, located 350 kilometers northwest of this city and one of the few places in the country where snow and ice sometimes occur in winter, saw around 88,000 visitors during the holidays, a 20 percent increase compared to in the same period in 2022.

Sa Pa was recently ranked among the top 10 snow-watching destinations in Asia by The Travel, a well-known travel website in Canada.

Other Vietnamese cities such as Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh City also feature in the list of the 25 trendiest travel destinations in the world in 2023, in this case compiled by TripAdvisor, a popular global tourism platform.

Located on the lower reaches of the Thu Bon River towards the East Sea, Hoi An is known as the “Venice of Vietnam” for its small and numerous canals through which boats gently glide to view the bridges and alleys illuminated with thousands of bridges and alleys at sunset lights and lanterns.

On the other hand, Hanoi also appears among the 25 most popular tourist attractions and the 20 best gastronomic destinations in the world according to TripAdvisor’s own “Travellers’ Choice, the best of the best”.

jcm/mpm