Located in national transport axis including railway, north-south motorway and East West Corridor, Thua Thien Hue province is home to Phu Bai international airport, A Dot national border gate, Hong Van national border gate, Thuan An seaport and Chan May seaport. In particular, Chan May deep seaport is the shortest and most convenient gateway of countries in Mekong Sub-region. Thanks to its natural landscape diversity and rich historic-cultural tradition, Thua Thien Hue province is considered as an ideal tourism destination.
Thua Thien Hue is the capital of Vietnam under Nguyen feudal dynasty and one destination - five world heritages. Cultural values in province show not only national cultural quintessence but also distinctive features of a cultural region. Hue has a diverse culture including tangible culture, intangible culture, natural landscape, environment, etc. Being home to Hue Monuments Complex and Hue Royal Court music, Thua Thien Hue is the center of world cultural heritage road in Vietnam i.e. Ha Long - Phong Nha - Hue - Hoi An - My Son - Ho Chi Minh. The province also connects tourism destinations of provinces such as Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Da Nang and Quang Nam, etc.
Today, garden villas and ancient streets which are featured characteristics of the ancient capital still can be found in Hue. In particular, many ancient sites and artifacts of Champa culture in Thua Thien Hue province still remain in province. Being the land of heroic revolution tradition, Thua Thien Hue province is home to relics of President Ho Chi Minh and revolutionary predecessors as well as historic sites during the war against the French colonialists and American empire such as Duong Hoa war zone, Hoa My war zone, A Luoi war zone and Ho Chi Minh trail.
Besides, Thua Thien Hue province is famous for gastronomy art, handicraft villages and folk festivals such as Whale Worshiping Festival, Hon Chen palace and boat-racing festival on Huong river, etc. In particular, Hue Festival held every two years attracts thousands turns of domestic and foreign visitors. Hue is one of the few localities having favorable condition to develop spiritual tourism. Spiritual tourism is an exciting type of tourism which brings economic values, has positive impacts on the environment, diversifies local cultural and spiritual life as well as contributes to stable social security. Hue spiritual tourism destinations are naturally formed through development history, social life, belief and religion.
Beside royal tombs under Nguyen dynasty, there are over 300 pagodas and Buddhist temples in Thua Thien Hue province. Of all, there are many famous pagodas namely Thien Mu, Tu Dam, Bao Quoc, Tu Hieu, Quoc An, Truc Lam, Thien Ton, Tra Am, Van Phuoc, etc. They are not only unique architectures in harmony with people and natural landscape, but also historical, cultural, spiritual addresses having great potential for spiritual tourism. Hue traditional spiritual festivals and yearly festivals such as Hon Chen palace festival, Huyen Tran shrine festival, Buddha's birthday festival, etc attracted a large number of domestic and foreign tourists.
Community tourism is considered as a kind of sustainable tourism which accelerates poverty alleviation strategies. It aims to attract locals participation in tourism products, create livelihood, encourage locals to respect culture tradition as well as natural heritages in province. Community tourism has a close connection with local authority, tourism management agencies, travel agents, non-governmental organizations, local community and tourists.
Thanh Toan tile-roofed bridge is considered as one of the most successful community destinations in province. It attracts far and near tourists on Hue Festival seasons. Joining community tour package to Thanh Toan tile-roofed bridge, visitors will have an opportunity to visit village hall, ancient church, go boating, experience local daily life, make conical hat, make Tet cake, enjoy local gastronomy, etc. Phuoc Tich ancient village has a system of pagoda, shrine, ancient house, Champa relics and traditional ceramic craft. It attracts tourists to discover local culture, architecture and life. At present, local ceramic craft is being recovered at Phuoc Tich ancient village. Coming to this destination, visitors have chances to make wet rice paper, sweet cakes and famous Tet jams in Phong Hoa commune.
Thua Thien Hue province also has potentials in terms of marine, delta, hills, mountains and forests; 128km long coastlines with beautiful beaches such as Lang Co (recently recognized as member of World Most Beautiful Bays Club), Thuan An and Canh Duong; and the largest lagoon in Southeast Asian region called Tam Giang - Cau Hai lagoon with the total area of nearly 22.00 hectares.
Its world cultural heritages, natural scenery as well as places of interests such as Huong river, Ngu Binh mount, Bach Ma mountain, Hai Van pass, tombs, pagodas, palaces, historic relics and garden villas - a local typical unique feature enables Thua Thien Hue province to develop various types of tourism such as cultural tourism, ecotourism, marine tourism, leisure tourism and sport, etc. Recently, the decision on developing Hue city as city of festival at national and international level was approved by Prime Minister.
This huge advantage enables Thua Thien Hue province to develop tourism as flagship economic sector at national and international level as well as make effort to become one of the largest and featured tourism centers in Vietnam.