Hand on: Tourists learn how to make ceramic jars at Bát Tràng Village in Hà Nội. The village was awarded the title of "Best Craft Village" at this year’s VITM. Photo travel-hanoi.com

HÀ NỘI – Traditional art performances by troupes from Indonesia, the Philippines and Russia opened the Việt Nam International Travel Mart (VITM) 2016 yesterday in Hà Nội.

The troupes performed on the outdoor stage, while visitors walked around the indoor exhibition area and enjoyed cultural specialities from various countries, such as Thai massage and Taiwan’s pineapple cake. All goods and services were offered free of charge to the visitors.

This year, Việt Nam impressed visitors with its Northwestern House, a 500sq.m. exhibition centre built in the shape of a traditional ethnic house to introduce destinations in the northwestern provinces. Apart from being used as an exhibition area for tourism and travel, it also features local specialities, traditional crafts and artworks.

During the travel mart, visitors to the area will have a chance to enjoy traditional dances and instrumental music and to watch handicrafts being made by people of various ethnicities.

Dancer Svetlana Subina from the Russian Cultural Centre in St Petersburg City said she came to Việt Nam with three musicians and 11 other dancers.

“Việt Nam and Russia have a long-standing friendship,” she said. “We love Việt Nam; it is one of our favourite countries in Asia that we have always wanted to visit.”

Subina said the VITM impressed her with its numerous well-decorated booths that introduced various destinations and the tourism potential in Việt Nam.

“By attending the fair, I now know much more about Việt Nam. Before, I just knew about the beaches, such as Nha Trang and Đà Nẵng, but now, I know that Việt Nam has a spectacular mountainous landscape, mangrove forests and a rich culture.”

With the theme “Việt Nam – The paradise of sea and island tourism”, the VITM focused on introducing the tourism potential of the coastal provinces and offered many sea and island tourism products.

Thousands of tourist packages, with discounts of up to 40 percent, will be offered at the event.

Some 15,000 tours with a 20-30 per cent discount and 20,000 cheap airline tickets will be sold at the event, according to Vũ Thế Bình, head of the organisation board.

“VITM hosts many press briefings, workshops and conferences to promote tourism and discuss problems and solutions. This is the biggest professional tourism event of the year.

“VITM can be compared with regional travel marts due to its capacity, scale and quality,” Bình said.

“Last year, VITM attracted 3,000 enterprises and 55,000 visitors. It worked really well, as many products were sold and many businesses have found opportunities to co-operate with each other.”

Vietrantour was the leader among the companies with the highest income from VITM 2014 and 2015. This year, it is offering discounts of up to 30 per cent for 9,999 international and domestic tours at the fair, the company’s deputy director, Phạm Bích Ngọc, said.

The first day of the travel mart was reserved for participating enterprises to exchange and sign co-operation contracts. It will open to the public today and run until Sunday at the Exhibition Fair Centre on 148 Giảng Võ Street, Hà Nội.

It was reported that 18.7 million Vietnamese travelled for leisure in the first quarter of this year, while the total number from last year was 30 million. VNS

The best destinations in Việt Nam were announced at VITM 2016’s opening ceremony.

1. Best resorts:

InterContinental Da Nang Sun Peninsula Resort (Đà Nẵng)

Vinpearl Phú Quốc Resort (Kiên Giang)

Six Senses Côn Đảo Resort (Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu)

2. Best amusement parks:

Vinpearl Land Nha Trang (Khánh Hoà)

Đại Nam Văn Hiến tourism complex (Bình Dương)

Đầm Sen Park (HCM City)

3. Best museums:

Việt Nam Museum of Ethnology (Hà Nội)

War Remnants Museum (HCM City)

Huế Museum of Royal Antiquities (Thừa Thiên-Huế)

4. Best craft villages:

Bát Tràng Pottery Village (Hà Nội)

Thanh Tiên Paper Flower Village (Thừa Thiên-Huế)

Thanh Hà Pottery Village (Quảng Nam)

5. Best beaches:

Mỹ Khê Beach (Đà Nẵng)

Nha Trang Beach (Khánh Hoà)

Quan Lạn Beach (Quảng Ninh)