Dancers perform at the Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary in Quảng Nam Province. The UNESCO-recognised world heritage site will stage a night performance to kick off the National Tourism Year – Quảng Nam 2022. — Photo courtesy of Mai Thanh Chương

QUẢNG NAM — More than 200 dancers and artists will stage an art performance: ‘The Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary Legendary Night’ in the central province’s Duy Xuyên District today marking a significant event of the National Tourism Year – Quảng Nam 2022.

The province said the performance would begin at 4pm at the UNESCO-recognised world heritage site in Duy Phú Commune, 40km from Hội An, featuring a series of cultural performances, arts and handcrafts demonstrations throughout the day.

Tourists enjoy visiting the palm forest in Cẩm Thanh Commune of Hội An on a coracle. — Photo courtesy of EMIC

Visitors will explore the old culture of Chăm people and the Vietnamese community by joining exhibitions and demonstrations of wood sculpture, weaving, terra-cotta, cuisine and the beauty of the Chăm tower complex.

The Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary – a UNESCO-recognised world heritage site – has been well preserved since it was built thousands of years ago during the prosperous development of the Champa Kingdom between the 4th and 13th centuries. 

French archaeologists and researchers found the Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary earlier in 1885. The first excavation and research on the Chăm towers began in 1898-99 by Louis Finot and Launet de Lajongquere.

A rural view is seen outside Hội An. — Photo courtesy of EMIC

The Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary is still a unique and mysterious archaeological site, and it remains a research centre for Chăm culture – a defunct civilisation in Asia, according to local archaeologists. 

In celebrations of the opening of the National Tourism Year, the ancient town of Hội An will host a balloon festival on Hoài River Square on March 25-26.

Meanwhile, a Balloon Day will be hosted by Đà Nẵng City, marking the restart of international flight when Singapore Airlines and Thai Vietjet carry the first international tourists to Đà Nẵng on March 27.

A bike tour is one of the favourite options among international travellers in Hội An. — Photo courtesy of EMIC

The Việt Nam National Administration of Tourism will grant a 5-star rating to Silk Sense Resort, the fifth resort in Hội An attaining the standard.

It’s also the first resort in Hội An boosting the use of environmentally friendly products, including paper/bamboo straws, paper bags and paper cups.

Quảng Nam’s tourism also welcomes a new recognised community-based tourism site in Cẩm Phú Village of Điện Bàn Town. Twenty kilometres away from Hội An, the town offers waste recycling into bio-dish washing liquid and soap from used cooking oil in an environment-friendly, circular economy, zero-waste and chemical-free farming.

A group of six agencies and tour operators – the FGV Group, the Hội An Memories, Tân Thành fishing village, Thiên Minh Group, Silk Group and Phú Ninh Lake eco-tour – will also debut indigenous culture conservation tourism links in Quảng Nam.

Cẩm Phú Village in Điện Bàn Town is recognised as a new community-based tourism site in Quảng Nam Province. The village has been building its ‘green’ tourism service for future sustainable development. — Photo courtesy of Cẩm Phú Village

The opening ceremony of the national tourism year will be organised at the Hội An Memory Island – a sandbank natural emerged on the Thu Bồn River banks – on the evening of March 26.

Quảng Nam – home to the two UNESCO-recognised world heritage sites of Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary and Hội An Town, and the world Biosphere Reserve Chàm Island-Hội An – plans to host 4.4 million tourists in 2022. — VNS