The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced Vietnam’s top ten culture, sport and tourism events in 2014 at a ceremony in Hanoi on December 30.

The list of events is as follows:

1. Resolution of the ninth meeting of the Party Central Committee (11th tenure) on the building and development of the Vietnamese culture and people to match the country’s sustainable development requirements.

2. The Trang An Tourism Complex in the northern province of Ninh Binh was inscribed on the UNESCO’s world heritage site.

3. The Vi-Giam folk singing of Vietnam was recognised as the world intangible cultural heritages of humanity.

4. Public response to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s document warning against the use of, presenting and eliminating exotic symbols and mascots in historical-cultural relic sites, offices and public areas.

5. “A great family of Vietnamese ethnic groups and the fatherland’s sacred sovereignty” event took place at the Vietnamese Ethnic Groups Culture–Tourism Village with various activities towards sea and islands.

6. Vietnam shined at the second Asian Para Games 2014 in Incheon, the Republic of Korea, ranking 10 out of 43 participating countries and territories.

7. The seventh National Sports Festival 2014 was successfully organised with the participation of 65 provinces and cities nationwide. As many as 57 national and 158 festival records were broken.

8. Shooter Hoang Xuan Vinh set a world record in the men's 10m air pistol event with 202.8 points at the World Shooting Cup 2014 held in the US.

9. The total revenue of tourism sector reached 230 trillion VND (10.9 billion USD), up 15 percent compared to 2013.

10. Vietnam ranked sixth amongst top 20 best destinations for travellers by US-based tourism magazine Travel+Leisure.-VNA