APEC leaders attending their Tourism Ministerial Meeting in Hoi An took yesterday off and visited some of the traditional craft villages in surrounding Quang Nam province.

The visitors did some planting and watering at the vegetable-growing village of Tra Que.

The 21 ministers were taken by the Hoi An Travel Center to the vegetable-growing village of Tra Que, where they did some planting, watering and food processing, then to Kim Bong, where the villagers specialize in wood-turning and carpentry, and on to the pottery village of Thanh Ha.

Before they leave Viet Nam, the visitors will go on another special tour, this time arranged by the Quang Nam People’s Committee, to the Champa ruins at My Son and the traditional bronze-casting village of Phuoc Kieu.

The idea is that they will be so impressed by what the province has to offer tourists that they will pass the word on when they return home.

“Viet Nam has great potential for tourism development. It is a rising star of the Asia-Pacific region,” Deputy Secretary-General Taleb Rifai of the UNWTO told Chairwoman Vo Thi Thang of the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism.

He added that the WTO supported Viet Nam in planning and building up the country’s tourism industry.