Hanoi (VNA)🐻 – The Hanoi Ao Dai Festival 2023 will take place in the capital city from October 13-15 with the participation of fashion designers, craft villages and tourism firms, according to the event's organiser.

The event’s opening ceremony, scheduled for October 13 evening at the pedestrian streets around Hoan Kiem Lake in downtown Hanoi, will be a combination of music, light and ao dai shows of the north, central and southern regions. The festival aims to promote Vietnam tourism in general and Hanoi tourism in particular, changing the image of ao dai from "cultural ambassador" to "tourism ambassador" - a typical tourism product of Hanoi. A parade of people in Ao dai will be held at Hoan Kiem Lake, the Old Quarter and Long Bien Bridge areas within the framework of the event. According to Dang Huong Giang, director of the municipal Department of Tourism, the festival is intended to stimulate tourism, drawing more domestic and international tourists. At the same time, it will honour the traditional Vietnamese dress and the capital’s heritage. The festival is expected to create a chance for artisans, fashion designers and tourism firms to exchange and explore cooperation opportunities, she said. Hanoi hopes to attract about 22 million tourists in 2023, rising 17.6% from last year, with 3 million foreign arrivals (doubling the figure in 2022) and 19 million domestic visitors (up 10.5%). It also targets an increase of 28.2% in tourism revenue to about 77 trillion VND (nearly 3.3 billion USD). Statistics from the municipal Tourism Department showed that about 16.9 million tourists visited Hanoi during the first eight months of 2023, rising 36.2% year on year. They include 2.79 million international arrivals, soaring 4.6-fold from the same period last year. Meanwhile, tourism earnings reached 61.6 trillion VND, up 63.1% from a year earlier, statistics show. The figures have proved the attractiveness of local tourism to domestic and international visitors, as well as the city’s efforts to draw tourists back, the department said. Occupancy rates at local hotels were estimated at 61.4% during January - August, up 28.5% year on year. Tran Trung Hieu, Deputy Director of the Tourism Department, said the department will increase advertising of local destinations and new tourism products on both domestic and foreign media in the coming time. It will also hold more tourism promotion events in such key markets as Northeast Asia, Europe, the US, and India while coordinating with Vietnam’s diplomatic representative agencies and trade offices abroad as well as international organisations to step up promotional activities, he added./.