The opening ceremony held on the evening of October 1 at the May 7 Square in Dien Bien Phu city with nearly 800 professional and amateur actors.

The northwestern province of Dien Bien is hosting a Vietnam-Laos cultural, sport and tourism festival from October 1-3, VNA reported.

The festival, the third of its kind so far, has attracted the participation of ethnic artisans, artists and amateur athletes from 10 Vietnamese provinces bordering Laos, and 10 art troupes from Laos.

Activities during the event include demonstrations of festivals and ethic cultural practices, shows of ethnic costumes, displays of socio-economic achievements and cultural and tourism products of participating localities, folk art performances, and traditional sport competitions.

Field trips to survey tourism attractions in Dien Bien will also be held for delegations from Vietnamese and Lao localities.

Artisans, actors, athletes and people of different ethnic groups from 21 provinces sharing the Vietnam-Laos border converges, honors and promotes good traditional cultural values. of the peoples of the two countries.

Deputy head of the festival’s organising board Nguyen Thi Hai Nhung said the festival is intended to praise the special Vietnam-Laos relationship and introduce the potential and strength in culture, sport and tourism of ethnic groups in areas along the Vietnam-Laos border.

It also testifies to the consistent policy of the Vietnamese Party, State and people on strengthening and developing the close bonds between the two Parties, States and peoples of Vietnam and Laos, she said.

The festival brings international friends and local people a lively space to experience the culture and sports of the ethnic brothers in Vietnam - Laos.

The festival features a host of activities, including a fashion show of traditional costumes, exhibitions of border tourism and culture, a musical gala, and sport events.

Representatives of 20 provinces along the shared border between Vietnam and Laos gathered in a conference promoting cooperation for tourism development in the two countries’ border region in Dien Bien Phu City on October 2.

According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), the shared borderline of more than 2,300km with eight international border gates and nine border-gate economic zones between the two countries is of great development potential and holds a strategic position on the East - West economic corridor.

VNAT Deputy Director-General Ha Van Sieu said bilateral tourism cooperation has seen progress in recent years given the good long-standing friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive partnership between the two countries. Many tourism promotion and cooperation activities have been jointly organised, attracting authorities, industry associations and tourism enterprises from both sides, he noted.

Vietnamese tourist arrivals in Laos reached nearly 924,900 in 2019 before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic while Vietnam welcomed more than 98,000 visitor arrivals from Laos.

As Vietnam and Laos removed Covid-triggered border closure earlier this year, travel between the two countries has begun recovering, with some 46,500 Lao arrivals in Vietnam and 49,200 Vietnamese visiting Laos in the first half of this year.

During the event, tourism administrators and border localities put forward various recommendations to boost tourism linkages and cooperation along the shared borderline.

Among the recommendations, one suggested the two countries adopt incentives attractive enough to lure investment in developing transport infrastructure connecting border-gate economic zones and tourist destinations while another proposed adding tourism cooperation into the 2015 Vietnam – Laos bilateral trade agreement.

The closing ceremony will be held at the provincial cultural centre in Dien Bien Phu in the afternoon of October 3.

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