The central coast city of Danang organized the Gala Dinner 2011 with the theme “Sparking Han River†in HCMC on February 25 to promote tourism products to tour operators, especially the Danang International Fireworks Competition.
According to the city’s tourism promotion center, the annual competition will take place on April 29 and 30 with the participation of five teams comprising Jubilee Fireworks of England, Hanwha of South Korea, Parente Fireworks A&C SNC of Italy, Panda Fireworks of China and a team of Danang City.
The Danang tourism sector had organized a similar event in the capital city of Hanoi in the previous week to promote to the event.
A ticket to see the performance costs VND200,000, or nearly US$10, and visitors can buy tickets in HCMC, Hanoi and Danang cities. The organizing committee expects to sell over 16,000 tickets for this competition.
Last year’s fireworks competition in Danang saw the participation of Pyrotecnico - New Castle from Pennsylvania (USA), Luso Pirotecnia Group (Portugal), Jacques Couturier Organisation (France), Tamaya Kitahara (Japan) and Danang (Vietnam). It attracted around 100,000 spectators.
Representatives of some hotels located along the Han River in Danang that offer a good view of fireworks display said that their hotels were receiving many bookings from spectators.
The central city has reported fast growth in tourism last year with around 1.77 million visitors - including 370,000 internationals - up 33% over 2009, and gaining over VND1.2 trillion in revenue, up 39% year-on-year.
The city is speeding up tourism promotion activities along with giving supports to airlines to open international services linking Danang and foreign destinations. The city currently has eight international air routes to Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and China among others.
Visitors from Narita of Japan will travel to the city more easily from the second quarter when Vietnam Airlines launches direct flights between the two cities.