Tourist attractions across Vietnam were packed with tourists, both local and foreign, during the series of festivals held in the country between April 27 to May 1. The explosion of cultural festivities aims to help reverse the latest data from the General Statistics Office indicating the the number of international visitors to the country to have dropped to 2.4% in April.

Among the most-visited places is the Dong Van Karst Plateau Geopark in the northern mountainous province of Ha Giang which welcomed some 6,000 visitors. The few short days generated the local tourism sector around 5 billion VND (240,000 USD) in revenues.

Aiming to provide pleasant experiences to tourists, authorities of Quan Ba, Yen Minh, Dong Van and Meo Vac districts (home to Dong Van Geopark) encouraged locals to exercise hospitality.

Even after the festival, Ha Giang province still expects annual visitor count to reach over 400,000. This projection is 20% greater than the previous year’s actual visits. The target amount of tourists will earn them over 450 billion VND (23 million USD) in turnover. Half of the target has already been achieved in the first four months of 2013 as nearly 200,000 travelers has already been recorded to have visited Dong Van Geopark.

Dong Van is Vietnam’s first geological park and the second of its kind in Southeast Asia. Its pristine condition is owed to its being untouched for hundreds of millions of years. Its 574 square kilometer plateau is 80 percent limestone and contains the fossils of thousands of prehistoric creatures 400-600 million years ago. Such plateau serves as home to 250,000 people from 17 different ethnic minoroties.

Visitors who came to see Dong Van also got the chance to explore tourist attractions in the locality like the Lung Tam linen weaving village, Khau Vai stone forest and love market, Lung Cu flag tower, Lo Lo Chai and Mong cultural tourism villages.

Similarly, some 17,000 guests arrived in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho. Popular places tourists came to see include Phong Dien, Con Au and Cai Cui. During the holidays, 30 boats were in service, allowing tourists to take cruise tours to and from My Khanh eco-tourist village, Ninh Kieu wharf and Cai Rang floating market.

In Kien Giang province, hotel and travel in accommodations became har to come by as tourists came in numbers. Nearly 8,000 tourists, about half foreign, spent their vacation in Phu Quoc island, known the “tourism paradise” in the south-western region.

The festivals intended to increase the number of visits in the country indeed kicked off the season pretty well.