Twenty six countries, including new comers Senegal, Cuba and Mongolia will take part in Hue Festival in June, the festival’s organizing board said on Wednesday.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung has approved the opening of the Thang Long Royal Citadel Relic Site for visitors on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi.

Five firework teams from the US, Japan, Portugal, France and Vietnam will compete in the third Danang International Fireworks Competition to be held March 27-28. The competition, which attracted 60,000 people to the seaside tourist destination last year, is themed “Legend of the Han River” this year.

Hanoi Craft Week 2010 will take place from Aug. 4-9 at the Friendship Cultural Palace in Hanoi with the participation of 500 craft villages. Themed “A thousand years of quintessence” the fair is part of activities to celebrate the Thang Long-Hanoi millennium anniversary and the national tourism year in Hanoi, Luu Tien Long, Director of the Hanoi Department of Industry and Commerce, said at a press briefing in Hanoi on March 8.

Phu Quoc Island in the southern province of Kien Giang will be turned into a tourism and commercial hub for the country and the region, according to a decision recently signed by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

The success of the 2009 ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) helped raise Vietnam’s tourism status in the region and offered opportunities for the country to promote its tourism potential abroad.

Passenger service fees for overseas flights from Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport will be raised by around 30 percent to US$18, the Ministry of Finance has said in a new decision.

The second Vung Tau International Kite Festival 2010 will take place from March 25th to 29th in Southern city of Vung Tau with the participation of nearly 30 countries, said the organising board.

Authorities of Italy’s Florence province and its cities of Trento, Milan and Genoa have pledged to actively celebrate the millennium anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi. Florence will hold a photo exhibition in May on the province’s former Mayor Giorgio La Pira, who represented the UN General Assembly to Hanoi for peace talks with President Ho Chi Minh in November 1965.