ĐÀ NẴNG — The central city of Đà Nẵng held a warm welcome ceremony at the airport on February 16 for the first 180 tourists visiting the city in the lunar New Year.

The Hong Kong Express airline carried tourists from Hong Kong visiting the city and other areas in the central region for the Tết (Vietnamese lunar New Year) festival.

According to the city’s tourism department, more than 100,000 tourists, 75 per cent of them foreigners, have booked hotels and resorts to explore the Tết festival and other attractions.

On the occasion of Tết, a flower festival started on the same day in the Bà Nà Hills Mountain resort, 1,471m above sea level. The festival will conclude at the end of March.

Visitors at the resort have been receiving lì xì (lucky money) from February 16-21. 

In Quảng Nam Province, an exhibition of 60 coloured photographs was opened at the village of Tam Thanh – famous for its murals – 7km from Tam Kỳ City.

The photographs have been put up on sidewalks of the village road to attract tourists during the lunar New Year.

The village gets almost 500 tourists every day, while some 2,000 young, offbeat travellers and backpackers visit to enjoy the colourful paintings on the walls of old houses in the fishing village.

Last year, the Tam Thanh art community village was awarded the 2017 Asian Townscape Award for its colourful murals. It is the first commune in Việt Nam to have colourful murals painted on its moss-covered walls by artists from Korea. — VNS