Hoi An tops Wanderlust travel list

The ancient city of Hoi An in the central province of Quang Nam was placed in the Top city category in the Wanderlust Travel Awards 2015, the city's information and sport centre revealed on February 4th.

The tourism hub in the central region of Vietnam ranked fifth in the category with a 94.12 percent satisfaction rating from readers surveyed by the British travel magazine.

Vietnam was listed in the Top country category with a 94.56 percent rating.

In 2013, Wanderlust also declared Hoi An the world's top city in its Readers' Travel Awards.

In 2012, Hoi An was shortlisted in the top ten Asian cities for US magazine Conde Nast Traveler's Readers Choice Awards. The following year, the UNESCO-recognised world heritage city was chosen for the Townscape Award by the UN-Habitat Regional Office in Asia.

Covering an area of 60 square kilometers, the city has 22.5 square kilometers of agriculture and forest land and 11 square kilometers of lakes and channels. The central city was the first place in Vietnam to host a Car Free Day and the first location in the central province launching the 3-R (reduce, reuse and recycle) program while promoting the use of reusable bags.

The city created a pedestrian street in its old quarter in 2002 and installed a solar-powered lighting system in Hoai River Square. The River and its channels feature in a list of the 10 most famous canals in the world compiled in 2014 by the US-based travel website www.touropia.com./.

VNF/VNA