The central province of Thua Thien-Hue welcomed more than 143,000 arrivals, including 104,882 international arrivals, in the first five weeks of this year, earning 11.38 billion VND (534,860 USD) from ticket sales.

During the Lunar New Year holiday, imperial Hue’s relics received 20,397 foreign arrivals.

To attract more tourists on this occasion, the Hue Relics Preservation Centre (HRPC) erected a New Year’s tree (cay neu) in the Hue Royal Palace on January 23 (the 23 rd day of the last lunar month).

Cay neu, often made of bamboo with a ring and a red scroll on its top, is believed to help ward off evils during the longest and most important annual festival in Vietnam.

According to the centre, besides discovering more about Vietnam ’s Tet festival, the visitors had a large choice of traditional Vietnamese dishes to enjoy, adding to the festive atmosphere in Vietnam ’s ancient capital.

Tourists had an opportunity to join the Lunar New Year’s Eve party, received gifts and enjoyed Tet feasts, as well as a performance of Nha Nhac ( Hue royal court music), martial arts and the lion dance.

This year, the HRPC will carry out three big tourism promotion programmes in March, September and December to attract more visitors to the relic site.

It strives to earn 130 billion VND (7.05 million USD) from ticket sales and 15 billion VND from other services at the site.-VNA