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The northern provinces of Phu Tho, Yen Bai and Lao Cai have teamed up to fully tap tourism potential along the Hanoi – Lao Cai route to welcome the tourism year Towards the Root in 2005.
The cooperation programme has been approved by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism as one of national key tourism programmes in 2005. It will focus on cultural, historical and scenery tourism, community tourism, festivals and ecological tourism.
The programme will begin with the Au Co Temple Festival in Phu Tho Province from 5th to 7th of the first lunar month (from February 18th to 19th) to commemorate the legendary mother named Au Co who gave birth to the first 100 children of the Vietnamese nation. Two days later, visitors will flock to Yen Bai Province to attend the opening ceremony of the Towards the Root Festival. It will be followed by a national festival in Phu Tho Province to commemorate Hung Kings – the founder of the Vietnamese nation from 7th to 10th of the third lunar month and the Sapa Cultural and Tourism Week in Lao Cai Province from April 30th to May 6th. A cultural festival of ethnic minority groups in the north-western region will be held in the ninth lunar month in Lao Cai Province.
In addition, the three provinces will organise local festivals including Bach Hac Boat Racing and Phet festivals in Phu Tho; Dong Cuong Temple and Dai Cai Temple, Thac Ba Temple, Tuan Quan Temple festivals and Muong Lo Cultural Festival (Nghia Lo Town) in Yen Bai; and Bao Ha Festival in Lao Cai Province.
Cu Duc Dua, director of Yen Bai provincial Department of Trade and Tourism, said that inter-provincial and inter-regional co-operation model will fully tap their potential for tourism development in these localities. As Lao Cai borders China and the mainland is increasing investment in the west, the region is expected to attract visitors from other regions in the coming years.
With numerous cultural and historic relics, every year Phu Tho Province attracts millions of visitors to Hung Kings Temple Festival and Lao Cai lures 500,000 festival goers to Sa Pa. Meanwhile, the number of visitors to Yen Bai Province is still modest as the province is considered a stopover only. Therefore, Yen Bai wants to team up with Phu Tho and Lao Cai to establish inter-provincial tours to fully tap its tourism potential with many historic relics. Mr Dua hoped that the co-operative model will open up opportunities for these provinces to diversify tourism services and boost economic development.
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