Concretely, the number of visitors to destinations managed by the Phong Nha - Ke Bang Tourism Center was 55,510 tourists, including 46,154 domestic tourists and 9,356 foreigners, grew by 1.2%; achieved over VND7.2 billion in turnovers, climbed up 6.21%. The Botanical Garden has welcomed 3,262 visitors, including 210 domestic visitors, up 173% and 3,052 foreigners, up 121%; achieved over VND113 million in turnovers, increased by 133%.

Besides, the routes managed by the Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park have received 2,365 tourists, up 126%, including 53 domestic visitors, decreased by 21%; 2,312 foreigners, up 136%.

Overview of Dong Hoi city

In order to attract more visitors and create a recreational site on the Lunar New Year 2017, the Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism has coordinated with localities to organize many cultural and sport activities and traditional folk games such as the full-moon festival (Minh Hoa district), the drum beating festival of the Ma Coong ethnic people in Thuong Trach commune (Bo Trach district); "Mua bong cheo can" performance in Bao Ninh commune (Dong Hoi city); "Le Thuy Ho khoan" (alternate singing between rowers) performance, attracting a large number of local people and tourists.

In addition, the Department of Tourism has coordinated with the departments and travel enterprises to organize tourism promotion activities such as "Quang Binh in the heart of Hanoi" programm with a series of activities (photo exhibition, "Quang Binh in songs" art performance, Le Thuy Ho khoan performance,...); "Tu Lan Challenge 2017" programme with the participation of 100 people, exploring nearly 30km of primeval forest and conquering Tu Lan cave system.

In addition, the Department has also planned to organize the 2017 "Quang Binh - Kingdom of caves" festival; the national beach tournanment; the Dong Hoi city culture and tourism week which is slated to take place from April 25-30 with a series of abundant activities.

In 2017, in order to effectively exploit system of caves, the tourism sector will implement a tourism stimulus promgram with a discount in ticket prices for visiting Phong Nha and Tien Son Caves on the Liberation Day (April 30) and May Day (May 1) holidays. Besides, many restaurants and hotels have registered a 10-30% discount in prices, ensuring the quality of services and food safety for tourists.

At present, the province has 287 accommodation establishments with 4,617 rooms and 8,634 beds. Quang Binh has 31 travel firms, including 05 international travel companies and 26 domestic travel companies; and more than 3,000 food service establishments with 16 standard restaurants.

Thien Duong Cave (Paradise Cave)

In the forthcoming time, the province will focus on promoting propaganda and popularization on the media at home and abroad; strengthening tourism connection between the North and the South Central provinces, especially the neighboring provinces of Hue and Da Nang; developing types of sea tourism, ecotourism, adventure tourism; opening new air routes of Dong Hoi - Hai Phong and Dong Hoi - Chiang Mai; broadcasting the images of tourism on TripAdvisor and the province's tourism website in English at the address: www.quangbinhtourism.com for international visitors only.

2017 is considered as an important year for the efforts to overcome difficulties and develop Quang Binh tourism. With the set target for 2017, the province strives to welcome three million visitors, including 80,000 foreigners; total tourism revenues reaches about VND3,000 billion; there are about 300 accommodation establishments with 8,500 rooms.

With the available potential of tourism and new travel directions, it is believed that 2017 will a prosperous year of Quang Binh tourism.

By Nhu Y
(Source: Quang Binh Portal)