The central province of Thua Thien-Hue on January 28 received luxury cruise ship Celebrity Constellation with 2,000 passengers on board at Chan May Port.
The tourists, mainly from the United States, Canada, Britain and France, were the first foreign visitors to travel to the province by sea in 2019, VietnamPlus news site reported.
Deputy head of the Tourism Department of Thua Thien-Hue Province Nguyen Van Phuc said the welcome ceremony for the first international tourists was part of a series of activities to market and introduce the image and people of the country in general and of the province in particular.
Despite unfavourable weather conditions, visitors were welcomed enthusiastically by the Tourism Department and travel firms in the province. They then went sightseeing in the cities of Hue and Danang, as well as in Hoi An Town.
In 2018, the province received 54 cruise ships, with 134,100 passengers and crewmembers on board, from luxury cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, Tui Cruises, Costa Criere, Viking Ocean Cruises, Small Cruise Lines and Princess Cruises.
The province aims to attract 4.5-4.7 million tourists in 2019, with the number of international arrivals accounting for 40 percent-45 percent, up 7 percent year-on-year. In addition, Thua Thien-Hue Province has set a target of achieving an estimated VND4.7-4.9 trillion in tourism revenue, edging up 10 percent against the figure seen last year.
