Thousands flock to Ha Long’s first-ever winter festival

Thousands of visitors flocked to Ha Long City in the northern province of Quang Ninh on the New Year’s Day (January 1) for the Winter Carnival, the first of its kind held in the province.

A highlight of the Winter Carnival is an open stage with the World Natural Heritage Site of Ha Long Bay in the background where more than 100 cruise ships parading back and forth

One of the event’s highlights was an open stage with the World Natural Heritage Site of Ha Long Bay in the background where more than 100 cruise ships parading back and forth. In addition, the audiences were also thrilled by performances of helicopters, seaplanes and paragliders in the sky overhead.

The carnival parade featured six performance sections, expressing the theme of “Ha Long – the aspiration of flying dragons,” during which performers in winter festival costumes showed off their Ha Long samba dance moves.

Visitors were also wowed by 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.

Organised by the Tuan Chau Group, the carnival aimed to offer visitors a new experience in Ha Long and help diversify tourism products in the province during the off-peak season.

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

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

VNA