More than 81,000 tourists, 66 percent of whom were domestictravellers, visited Hue city from April 28 to May 1, according to ThuaThien Hue’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

All the big hotels in the city were all full during the peak days fromApril 29 to May 1, the department said, adding that besides the longApril 30 holiday, the Hue Traditional Handicraft Festival 2015 has beenanother big draw.

As of May 1, Hue has attractednearly one million tourists, with 392,367 of them internationaltravellers, collecting over 937 billion VND (44 million USD), up 8.11percent from last year.

The ancient city of Hue, which was thenational capital from 1802 to 1945 under the Nguyen dynasty, wasrecognised by UNESCO as a world cultural heritage site more than 20years ago.

It has been appraised by UNESCO officials andinternational organisations as a good example of heritage conservationthanks to joint efforts exerted by the city authorities, the Hue RelicConservation Centre, provincial departments and offices.

Aproject that lasted from 1996 to 2010 helped conservation work to becarried out systematically, restoring relic sites, intensifyinginternational cooperation and applying scientific advancement.

During 1996-2013, 800 billion VND was spent on restoring 100architectural buildings. Most recently, a project on the entirerestoration of the complex worth nearly 1.3 trillion VND has beenimplemented, opening up the promise of the comprehensive recovery of thewhole site.

The work has received praise from UNESCO and other international organisations.-VNA