Attending the event were National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong, Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung, leaders of Thai Nguyen province and representatives from ministries, sectors and other localities.

As many as 20,000 people flocked to Thai Nguyen Stadium last night to witness the launching of the National Tourism Year. Spectators enjoyed traditional music, dance and cultural performances given by the Tay and Nung ethnic minority groups which reside in the area.

The Thai Nguyen Tourism Year aims to honour the place where the late President Ho Chi Minh and the Party Central Committee worked and led the resistance war against the French colonialists in 1947.

Addressing the launching ceremony, Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung expressed his desire that the Thai Nguyen tourism sector in particular and the country in general take advantages of organising the tourism year while developing the tourism sector and contributing to improving the local people''s lives. He also said that this would be an opportunity for the country''s tourism sector to try its best to win domestic and foreign visitors'' hearts.

The tourism year is expected to highlight Thai Nguyen as one of the premier tourist destination regions in the country. This year, the city expects more than 750,000 domestic and foreign arrivals, which will boost the tourism sector’s revenues to US $26.5 million.

Thai Nguyen, about 80 kilometres northeast of Hanoi, is an economic and cultural centre of the Viet Bac region. It covers an area of 2,541 square metres and has a population of more than a million.