HÀ NỘI – The 2024 Hà Nội Tourism Festival, themed Thăng Long – Hà Nội, Thủ đô quyến rũ (Thăng Long – Hà Nội, a charming capital) held from April 25-28 at the city’s Thống Nhất Park, with diverse activities.

3D Mapping at Ô Quan Chưởng – a new night tourism product in Hà Nội. VNA/VNS Photo Tuấn Đức

"The festival is an opportunity for the city to promote exchange activities, and honour and connect heritage and historical relics, developing tourism products," said Bùi Duy Quang, Deputy Director of the Hà Nội Trade and Tourism Investment Promotion Centre.

The annual event aims to honour the attractive cultural and historical values of Hà Nội, exploit existing advantages, step up tourism promotion activities and attract more domestic and foreign tourists to the capital city.

The opening ceremony will take place from 7 to 9.30pm on April 26 with an elaborate and majestic art programme demonstrating the strong vitality of the thousand-year-old capital.

The festival will have around 150 booths introducing Hà Nội's tourist destinations and heritage, tourism and specialities of other cities and provinces, and those of other countries. It will also include spaces for the capital city’s craft villages and its typical dishes.

Within the framework of the festival, the conference "Hà Nội – Cultural-Historical Tourism Destination" aims to exchange and discuss the current status, potential, opportunities and solutions to develop unique and specific tourism products.

Traditional and contemporary art performances such as flash mob dancing, water puppet performance "Thăng Long Imperial Citadel," dragon dance – folk musical instrument performance "The Heroic Capital," áo dài (Vietnamese traditional dress) show "Golden History of Tràng An," and painting activity "Emotions inside me," are held throughout the festival to enhance the experiences of all visitors.

Hà Nội welcomed about 6.54 million tourist arrivals in the first quarter this year, of them some 1.4 million are international visitors, representing year-on-year rises of 10.9 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively, the municipal Department of Tourism said. VNS