Da Lat is located in Lam Dong province at an elevation of 1,500 metres. It is approximately 200km northeast of Ho Chi Minh City and bears the look of an old French city. It was founded in 1897 by Doctor Alexandre Yersin, who recommended that the area should be developed as a resort town.

The site is well known for its beautiful flowers and lakes. The climate of Da Lat is suitable for various kinds of flowers such as orchids, roses, lilies, and camellias.

With its favourable climate conditions and breath-taking scenery, Da Lat is an ideal resort place not only in Vietnam but also in the South East Asian region.

The province?s poor infrastructure and an unqualified contingent of tourism staff in the ?80s made the central highland city extremely quiet, however.

The "non-smoke" industry of Lam Dong province was restarted in the ?90s with the completion of a plan for tourism development till 2010 in 1996. Based on the plan, Lam Dong tourism sector was able to run pre-feasibility studies to call for investment and zone off 90 off scenic and cultural sites in the province, with 50 in Da Lat city alone.

Making use of natural resources to develop the tourism sector, Lam Dong has mapped out a number of socio-economic develop policies to manage and development the tourism industry. Efforts have been made to simplify administrative procedure to attract both foreign and domestic investment. As a result, a total of VND 850 billion (roughly US $70 million) was spent to upgrade and restore the entertainment and recreation areas, scenic sports and the construction of new accommodation facilities.

To date, the province has 299 hotels with over 3,700 rooms, including 20 hotels with 750 rooms of international standard. In addition, nearly 300 lodging houses with over 2,700 rooms are also available for tourists in the province.

The province receives 650,000 visitors annually, including 13,000 foreigners, a two-fold increase compared to the figure registered in 1993. As a result, Lam Dong tourism sector?s budget remittance made up over 6% of the province?s budget revenues and earnings from tourism services accounted for nearly 29% of the provincial gross domestic product (GDP). The tourism sector of Lam Dong registered a total turnover of nearly VND 170 billion (US $12.2 million) in 1998 from VND 81 billion in 1994.

One of the major targets of the "Da Lat: City of Flowers - Venue of 200" plan is to raise businesses? and people?s awareness of how to make effective use of natural resources and promote cultural value to obtain sustainable development requirements for the province.

To this end, the tourism sector of Lam Dong has defined in its tourism development strategy targets of promoting various types of tours, including ecological, cultural and sight-seeing ones, turning Da Lat into an ideal place for organising conferences and seminars, and intensifying marketing efforts with due attention given to the domestic market. Another target of Lam Dong tourism sector is to integrate itself into the regional tourism sector of South-East Asia and gradually to the of Asia-Pacific.

Lively tourism festival activities will be held in Da Lat in the year 2000. Prominent among year 2000 festival activities will be a grand ceremony to mark the centenary eve. Traditional festival such as the Spring Festivals, Going Festival, and Love Festival will be held in Da Lat nest year.

Major activities under the theme "Da Lat: City of Flowers - Venue of 2000" is being be organised from July, 1999 to July 2000 to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of Vietnam?s tourism sector and World Tourism Day.