HANOI, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- An international hot air balloon festival kicked off on Thursday in Vietnam's northern mountainous Lai Chau province.

During the three-day event themed "Valentine," Vietnamese and foreign visitors have chances to fly in big colorful hot air balloons controlled by five teams from Japan, Thailand and Vietnam, the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism said on Thursday.

Lai Chau received nearly 300,000 domestic and foreign visitors, and made tourism revenues of more than 450 billion Vietnamese dong (nearly 19.6 million U.S. dollars) last year.