Making Hue a center of tourism and culture in Vietnam and the region

On the evening of March 25, at the floating stage on the Perfume River, the Opening Ceremony of the National Tourism Year - Hue 2025 took place with the theme "Hue - Ancient Capital, New Opportunities".

Art program at the opening night of National Tourism Year - Hue 2025. (Photo: Vo Thanh)

National Tourism Year - Hue 2025 is a typical cultural - economic - social and tourism event of national and international scale combined with Hue Festival 2025, associated with the 50th anniversary of Hue liberation (March 26, 1975 - March 26, 2025).

The opening ceremony of National Tourism Year - Hue 2025 is the opening event for a series of cultural, sports and tourism activities taking place across provinces and cities across the country.

The National Tourism Year promises to turn Hue into a tourism and cultural center of Vietnam and the region, contributing to promoting and inspiring people to travel, creating momentum for the tourism industry to recover and develop quickly and sustainably.

In 2025, the National Tourism Year returns to Hue for the second time, at a time when the Party Committee, government and people of all ethnic groups here are honored and proud when Thua Thien Hue province officially becomes a city directly under the Central Government from January 1, 2025.

Becoming the "leading cultural heritage destination in Vietnam and the region"

Speaking at the ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Mai Van Chinh emphasized that tourism is a key economic sector, not only contributing to creating jobs, improving income for millions of workers, helping many households in remote areas escape poverty, bringing a new look, reviving relics after years of slumber, but also promoting cooperation, cultural exchange, international integration, building friendship, preserving peace, helping the unique cultural values ​​of the nation to be promoted, deeply absorbed, and spread domestically and internationally.

Vietnam has many favorable conditions for tourism development. The Party and State always pay attention to and direct the tourism industry to make the best use of human, cultural and natural potential, advantages of the sea and islands, and existing strengths to develop tourism into a spearhead economic sector.

Deputy Prime Minister Mai Van Chinh speaks at the opening ceremony of National Tourism Year - Hue 2025. (Source: VGP)

Along with the political determination of many localities, the efforts of tourism businesses have created internal growth and recovery of Vietnam's tourism industry, surpassing expectations in both quantity and quality.

In just two years 2023 and 2024, Vietnam's tourism has recovered spectacularly, far exceeding the planned target and becoming one of the bright spots of the economy. Vietnam is the fourth largest destination in ASEAN in terms of number of arrivals and total tourism revenue.

Deputy Prime Minister Mai Van Chinh affirmed: "This is not only a signal of strong recovery but also a testament to the sustainable appeal of Vietnamese tourism on the world map."

According to Deputy Prime Minister Mai Van Chinh, 2025 is expected to be a milestone marking the strong return of Vietnamese tourism, with "hopeful" goals of welcoming 22 - 23 million international visitors; 120 - 130 million domestic visitors, striving for total tourism revenue of about 1 million billion VND.

The Deputy Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, ministries, sectors, Hue city and localities across the country to continue promoting the achievements, strive to overcome difficulties and challenges, and proactively continue to coordinate to effectively implement a number of key tasks.

"With the special attention of the Party and State; with the dynamism, creativity and high determination of Party committees at all levels, authorities, business communities and people, Hue tourism will become a 'leading cultural heritage destination in Vietnam and the region', making an increasingly important contribution to the country's development, bringing happiness to the people, contributing to the development of Vietnamese culture and Vietnamese civilization will last forever, shining in the flow of human civilization", the Deputy Prime Minister believes.

Panoramic view of the opening ceremony of Hue National Tourism Year 2025. (Photo: Tran Thien)

Affirming the desire to rise, innovate and create

At the ceremony, Mr. Nguyen Van Phuong, Chairman of Hue City People's Committee, said that Hue has 6 heritages recognized by UNESCO as tangible and intangible cultural heritages of humanity and 2 co-owned heritages. The city is proud not only to be a tourist destination but also a place to preserve important cultural values ​​of Vietnam.

Hosting the National Tourism Year 2025 is an opportunity for Hue to introduce its cultural, historical and natural beauty to domestic and foreign tourists.

"This is not only a great honor when Hue city has just officially become a city directly under the Central Government, but also a strong motivation for Hue to continue to preserve, honor and spread traditional cultural values. This is also an opportunity for Hue to affirm its aspiration to rise up, innovate and create, towards a sustainable development future in a new era - the era of the Vietnamese people's rise", Mr. Nguyen Van Phuong emphasized.

Chairman of Hue City People's Committee Nguyen Van Phuong speaks at the opening ceremony of National Tourism Year - Hue 2025. (Photo: Ngoc Hieu)

This year, Hue hopes to bring a vibrant tourism year with a series of events, festivals, and unique art programs to honor heritage values, while at the same time, creating opportunities for visitors to experience the harmonious combination of tradition and modernity.

The Chairman of the Hue City People's Committee expressed: "We are committed to organizing diverse activities, from special art programs recreating royal culture, Ao Dai festivals, Hue culinary festivals to sports events, international seminars on conservation and sustainable tourism development.

In particular, the series of events of the 4-season Festival taking place in 2025 will be the highlight, contributing to creating a colorful cultural picture, making Hue a more attractive destination than ever."

The 90-minute opening art program of the National Tourism Year - Hue 2025, with the theme "Confession of the River", includes three parts: "Legend of a River", "Converging Rivers" and "New Flow of Rivers", honoring the tangible and intangible cultural values ​​and unique tourism resources of Vietnam.

More than 800 famous domestic actors, singers, artists and international art troupes from China and Korea participated in the performance.

The opening night also featured many impressive performances such as light shows, electronic water drums, panogama water music, flying dragons, flying parachutes... The highlight was the high-altitude fireworks display at the Hue Flag Tower area.

It is expected that there will be 75 major national and international events taking place in Hue city throughout the National Tourism Year 2025, focusing on Spring Festivals such as "Spring of the Ancient Capital", Summer Festival "Shining Imperial City", Autumn Festival "Hue in Autumn" and Winter Festival "Winter of Hue" following the orientation of the local 4-season Festival.

Director of Hue City Department of Tourism Tran Thi Hoai Tram informed that the National Tourism Year 2025 is expected to help the city welcome 5.25-5.5 million visitors and stay; of which, domestic visitors account for about 70-80%. Revenue is estimated at 11,000-12,000 billion VND.

To be ready to welcome a large number of tourists to Hue this year, accommodation establishments have been and are making detailed preparations, from supplying and reserving raw materials, increasing services, and renovating facilities.

Hue City currently has 887 accommodation establishments with about 14,000 rooms, distributed in various types of accommodation from resort hotels, resorts, tourist apartments, tourist villas, to motels and homestays. In particular, the demand for accommodation in 3-5 star and above types is quite high during peak times.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/nam-du-lich-quoc-gia-2025-dua-hue-tro-thanh-tam-diem-du-lich-van-hoa-cua-viet-nam-va-khu-vuc-308843.html