The 2013 Sapa in Cloud Festival with various unique cultural activities attracted more than 33,000 visitors including 1,503 foreign tourists, bringing the total number of tourists to Sapa during the first four months of this year to 235,766.

This is a good sign for the tourism industry of Sapa district and the northern province of Lao Cai.

The long five-day national holiday at the end of April (from April 27 to May 1), a wide range of activities on offer plus pleasant weather has helped attract more visitors to the popular mountain resort town.

Le Manh Hao, Director of Sapa district’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said that the number of visitors peaked in the days from April 29 to May 1; however, the locality managed to maintain good order and food safety.

During ten days of the festival from April 26 to May 5, tourists had opportunity to experience impressive and unforgettable activities such as “Le cap sac” (age-coming) ceremony for boys, flute performance, traditional pan-pipe dance contest, ethnic dress fashion show, display of flowers and ornamental plants, art photo exhibition and a mountain climb to conquer Ham Rong peak.

In addition, visitors had real experience when living in ethnic groups’ houses, taking the role of ethnic groom and bride, eating traditional ethnic food, and doing the daily activities of going into the forest to pick medicinal herbs and working in the field.-VNA