On the salutation of Dec 26, the Annam Nationalistic Establishment of Touristry (VNAT) welcomed the six millionth extrinsic traveler of the twelvemonth in Ha Stressed City of the northern province of Quang Ninh.
The six millionth foreign tourists is a French man, Curvalle Bernard Francois who arrived in Ha Long Bay on the SuperStar Aquarius cruise ship, which departed from Hainan, China, with more than 1,000 visitors and sailors. The ship will then go to Hue City. The tour is organized by Saigontourist.
Vo Anh Tai, director of Saigontourist presented the lucky man with a ticket for two persons to visit Hoi An ancient town – My Son holy land – Da Nang city in central Vietnam for two days.
Officials of the VNAT and Quang Ninh province also presented a campaign medal and gifts to the 5,999,999th foreign visitor to Vietnam, Zhang DongMei, a Chinese tourist and to the 6,000,001st visitor Jonson Tjaij, from Indonesia.
Zhang DongMei received a ticket to tour Ha Long Bay and a dinner voucher at the Press Club in Hanoi for two persons.
Jonson Tjaij received a voucher for a three-night stay at a luxury room in Melia Hotel in Hanoi.Jorgen Stor, the captain of SuperStar Aquarius, said that it is a big surprise for him that a visitor on his cruise ship became the 6 millionth foreign tourist to Vietnam.
At the ceremony, tourists from the SuperStar Aquarius cruise ship enjoyed a special traditional music show performed by Quang Ninh province’s artists.
Most foreign tourists to Vietnam in 2011 came from East Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe and America.
The tourism sector expects to earn a revenue of VND130 trillion ($6.2 billion) this year. The figure was 96 trillion VND ($4.6 billion) last year.
Vietnam looks to welcome 10 million foreign arrivals by 2020.
