A view of Ha Long Bay at night. VNA/VNS Photo

QUẢNG NINH — Hạ Long City, home to the World Natural Heritage Site of Hạ Long Bay, in the northern province of Quảng Ninh, is inviting visitors to its winter carnival, slated for New Year's Day.

The highlight of the event will transpire on the bay itself, with more than 100 cruise ships due to parade back and forth.

In addition, audiences are set to be wowed by performances of helicopters, seaplanes, and paragliders in the skies overhead.

Visitors will be able to enjoy a wide range of performances which showcase the typical cultural and tourism attractions of the northeastern province, along with sampling delicious cuisine and discovering interesting tourism products at the carnival.

The carnival parade consists of six performance sections, expressing the theme 'Hạ Long-the aspirations of flying dragons'. The performers with winter festival costumes will perform Hạ Long samba dances. 

Organised by the Tuần Châu Group, the carnival will kick off at 4pm at the Tuần Châu international tourism area. 

It will feature about 1,000 performers in colourful costumes and entry is free.

As the first winter carnival to be held in Quảng Ninh, it promises to offer a new experience in Hạ Long and help diversify tourism products in the province during the low season.

Total visitors to Quảng Ninh, a tourism magnet in Việt Nam, this year are estimated at 8.8 million, down 37 per cent from 2019. Of these, some 536,000 were foreigners, a year-on-year decline of 90.7 per cent.

The province is looking to attract about 10 million visitors in 2021, according to the provincial Tourism Department. — VNS