Sam Son beach in north-central Vietnam. Photo by VnExpress/Le Hoang. 

A carnival parade will commence in Thanh Hoa Province's Sam Son beach on Friday night, launching a tourism festival in one of Vietnam’s most popular beach destinations. 

The street carnival featuring colorful flower carriages and foreign dancers will take place from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Friday and 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Saturday to kick off 2020 Sam Son Sea Tourism Festival in Thanh Hoa.

The carnival will depart from the Le Loi and Ho Xuan Huong intersection and pass along a 2.4-kilometer-long route skirting the beach.

The festival opening ceremony will occur Saturday evening, to include a special art performance and spectacular firework display. A series of cultural, tourism and sport activities will be held during the event that will run until September.

Organized by Sun Group, a leading Vietnamese real estate developer, in cooperation with Thanh Hoa authorities, the festival aims to promote Sam Son beach town and revive the local tourism industry, hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.

This is the second time the festival takes place in Sam Son, first exploited for tourism by French colonialists in 1907. The town boasts long beaches with strong waves, beautiful mountains like Truong Le, Trong Mai Islet, and Doc Cuoc Temple.

A carnival parade in Thanh Hoa Province in 2019. Photo by VnExpress/Le Hoang. 

Since early May, all popular tourist destinations in Vietnam reopened after months of temporary shutdown to contain the novel coronavirus. The country has gone over two months without community transmission, reporting a total 352 coronavirus infections and no deaths.

Given tight restrictions remaining on international travel, the tourism industry is now focused on boosting domestic tourism as local carriers fully resumed operations of domestic flights.

With borders closed and international flights suspended since late March, Vietnam’s January-May intake of foreign tourists dropped 48.8 percent year-on-year to 3.73 million.