Audiences at the Huế Craft Village Festival's áo dài show. VNS Photo Xuân Đạt

THỪA THIÊN-HUẾ — The former capital city of Huế welcomed 550,000 visitors during the recent five-day holiday, marking a boom in arrivals for the city.

The Local Department of Tourism announced the figures, which were counted from last weekend to May Day, rising 23 per cent over the same period last year. The department’s report said 160,000 of the arrivals stayed at local facilities, pushing the city’s resorts, hotels and homestay services to full capacity.

Some 81,000 of the total were international visitors, with the majority coming from South Korea, the US, France, the UK and Thailand.

The department explained the boom on the long holiday for Vietnamese Reunification Day and May Day, as well as the biennial craft and culture event Huế Craft Village Festival.

Starting on April 26, the festival ends today after a week of festivities across the city. Visitors to the city were able to enjoy craft performances and exhibitions as well as cultural shows performed by craft masters from across the country and artists representing different countries.

Huế introduced its craftsmanship of paper lotus making, nhà rường (wooden house of many beams and pillars) making, trúc chỉ paper art and embroidery. This year’s event was the eighth version of the biennial festival and visitors witnessed the crafts of Huế and decorations of hundreds of flower pots imported from Đà Lạt City.

The festival’s áo dài show was the most successful staged event, where audiences got the chance to enjoy the beauty of the Vietnamese national costume printed with images of popular heritage items.

The presence of artists and artisans from Gyeongju and Namyanju from South Korea; Takayama, Sasayama and Saijo from Japan; as well as Konya from Turkey helped diversify the colour of the festival.

During the festival, visitors got chance to taste different dished prepared by top chefs across the country in a gastronomy event. — VNS