The opening ceremony of the National Tourism Year 2024-Dien Bien was scheduled to take place in Dien Bien City on March 16. The Ban (Bauhinia) Flower Festival will be the highlight of the event.

Many hotels and guesthouses in Dien Bien have been fully booked. Manh Hai, manager of a hotel in Dien Bien, said that his hotel had been fully booked one month ago. “I have contacted other local accommodation facilities to help connect customers, but failed to find available rooms left,” Hai added.

Since early March, Ha Phuong Thao from Hanoi has spent quite a lot of time looking for rooms so that her family could visit Dien Bien on March 15-16.

Doan Van Chi, deputy director of the Dien Bien Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said that local authorities had called on households to register accommodation for visitors during the Bauhinia Flower Festival. Some 40 households in Dien Bien District have registered to participate.

Dien Bien Province now has 205 tourist accommodation establishments with a total of 2,767 rooms.

The first-ever light show featuring a total of 200 drones will be held at the opening ceremony of the tourism year. Visitors will have the chance to admire an array of colourful symbols, such as a map of Vietnam, a flying dragon, the tourism logo of Dien Bien Province, the Ban flower, Muong Thanh field, the national flag, as well as various symbols of cities throughout the country.

This year, Dien Bien has set a target to serve 1.30 million visitors with a total revenue of VND2.2 trillion (USD89.32 million).