Northern mountainous provinces launch tourism year

Northern mountainous provinces launch tourism year

QĐND – Monday, November 23, 2009, 16:51 (GMT+7)

A ceremony was held in Ha Giang province on November 21 to launch the 2010 Tourism Year of four northern mountainous provinces, namely Ha Giang, Tuyen Quang, Cao Bang and Bac Kan.

The event was attended by Head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Mass Mobilisation Ha Thi Khiet and leaders of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Activities to introduce the four provinces’ tourism potential included a tourist guides’ contest, a fashion show of ethnic minority costumes and a photo exhibition on landscapes and people of the four provinces.

The 2010 Tourism Year aims to attract tourists and investors to the four provinces and boost tourism cooperation with China’s northwestern and southwestern localities.

Source: VOV

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HCM City looks to boost tourism in Cambodia

HCM City looks to boost tourism in Cambodia

QĐND – Monday, November 23, 2009, 16:51 (GMT+7)

Ho Chi Minh City and Mekong delta provinces plan to launch a tourism investment promotional programme in Cambodia from December 7-9.

The Saigon Giai Phong (Liberated Saigon) quoted HCM City’s Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism as saying that businesses from the city and two Mekong delta provinces of An Giang and Kieng Giang will travel to capital of Phnom Penh and Sihanouk Ville city to meet with Cambodian Ministry of Tourism officials and leaders from localities of Cambodia.

Their talks are to focus on tourism market and ways to promote Vietnam’s tourism in the neighbouring country.

Source: VNA

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Vietnam tourism advertised on French TV

Vietnam tourism advertised on French TV

QĐND – Monday, November 23, 2009, 16:51 (GMT+7)

A film crew from France’s TV5 channel has shot the Vit Co Xanh ecological village in northern Hoa Binh province and Sao Bien yacht in Ha Long Bay, Quang Ninh province.

This film will be broadcasted on TV5’s Tourism Discover programme, which introduces unique tourist sites to the French-speaking community. The film will be on TV5 Quebec (Canada) in January 2010 and on global TV5 Monde in March 2010.

In Vietnam, apart from shooting the world natural heritage site at Ha Long Bay, the French film crew paid special attention to the community tourism model, with Vit Co Xanh ecological tourist site as the example.

French film makers came to Vietnam under the sponsorship of Vietnamese travel company, Vietnam Adventure.

France is a key market for the Vietnamese tourism industry. Around 300,000 French visitors come to Vietnam annually to discover culture, history and ecological tourism.

Source: CPV

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Border provinces urged to boost tourism development

Border provinces urged to boost tourism development

QĐND – Saturday, November 21, 2009, 22:25 (GMT+7)

Vietnam’s border provinces need to pay more attention to developing their tourism sector and bring in more tourists to the country, industry insiders say. 

Ly Mon, general director of Ha Long Tourism Joint Stock Company, told Thanh Nien many people often think that cross-border tourism is only for low-income tourists and thus not worth much attention.

However, six travel agencies in Quang Ninh Province just proved them wrong by having a successful program that brought in 296,000 tourists from China and total revenues of VND300 billion over the past three years.

Vietnam shares more than 4,550 kilometers of its land border with China, Laos and Cambodia. According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, cross-border tourists have accounted for more than 30 percent of total foreign arrivals to the country in the past few years, with arrivals from the Southeast Asian region growing rapidly.

Vu The Binh, head of the travel department at the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, said the natural resources and cultures of the country’s 25 border provinces offer great tourism potential.

“It’s the fault of the industry that the potential has not been fully tapped,” Binh said.

Luu Duc Ke, director of the Hanoitourist Company, said that during a recent trip to Lang Son, he found that the northern border province did not pay attention to developing tourism even though the sector contributed nearly 40 percent of its gross domestic product.

For example, many foreign tourists wanted to come and visit the villages where the ethnic minorities live, but the province didn’t consider such places as tourist sites, he said.

Analysts said although border provinces have tried to improve their infrastructure for tourism, the efforts have not been enough. The facilities at many border gates have deteriorated while customs procedures have not been modernized, they said.

Meanwhile, the quality of hotel, restaurant and entertainment services in many provinces has failed to cater to wealthy visitors who tend to spend a lot of money when travelling, they added.

Source: VietNamNet/Thanh Nien

 

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Escaping the heat on northern tour

Escaping the heat on northern tour

QĐND – Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 11:19 (GMT+7)

At a time when HCMC is in the grip of a scorching heat wave, Ben Thanh Tourist comes through with a seven day/six night tour to Hanoi, Ha Long, Mong Cai and Dong Hung, China. Northern Vietnam is getting colder and colder, a welcome change for so many people in the final weeks of autumn.

The first day is a flight to Cao Bang which is well-known for its historic spots: Pac Po Cave, Lenin Stream, Karl Marx Mountain and Ban Gioc Waterfall.

Pac Po Cave is renowned as a working and living place of President Ho Chi Minh. Near the cave, there is a stalactite which looks like a statue of Karl Marx, therefore President Ho Chi Minh named it Karl Marx. Below Karl Marx Mountain is a perfectly clear spring which the President named Lenin. The area, with its mighty natural charm, is attractive to ecology tourists and researchers.

On the third day, the tour continues to Lang Son to visit the famous Tam Thanh Grotto. Its door is about eight meters high and opens onto a corridor with 30 stone steps carved into the mountain. Dense groves hide the grotto from the sun, making it mysterious and cool.

The next day visits Ha Long Bay in Quang Ninh Province. Ha Long Bay boasts more than one thousand awesome limestone karsts and islands of various sizes and shapes along the 120-km coastline of Bai Chay Beach.

Ha Long Bay hosts a great diversity of ecosystems including coral reefs, freshwater swamp forests, mangrove forests, small freshwater lakes and sandy beaches.

Source: VNN

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More Vietnamese tourists use central border gates

More Vietnamese tourists use central border gates

QĐND – Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 20:5 (GMT+7)

Due to the economic crisis and flu A/H1N1, the number of overland tourists passing through border gates in the central and central highland regions seems to have slowed down. It is expected to reach 60,000-70,000 in 2009, one-third less than in 2008.

Nguyen Dinh Thanh, vice director of Vitours, said that in recent times caravan tourism has become increasingly popular attracting visitors from other ASEAN member countries and from third countries via Thailand.

To attract more visitors to the central region, many travel agents, such as Saigontourist, Vietravel and Vitours have signed agreements with partners from Thailand, Laos ad Cambodia.

However, Vietnam and Laos are not yet able to meet increasing demands, for lack of hotels and tourist guides, not to mention the fact that Laotian travel agents collect immigration fees several times at the border gates, pushing up the prices of these tours.

Source: VOV

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Cam Ranh International Airport to be put into operation

Cam Ranh International Airport to be put into operation

QĐND – Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 20:5 (GMT+7)

The southcentral province of Khanh Hoa is expected to inaugurate Cam Ranh International Airport on December 12, 2009, opening up new opportunities for the province to develop its economy and tourism.

The airport is located 30km from the coastal city of Nha Trang.

In 2007, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung approved a zoning plan for construction of the airport until 2020 with a vision toward 2030. Accordingly, the airport will be able to receive planes such as ATR72, A320, A321 and B747F. It will also be expanded to provide 32 parking lots, receive as many as 27 aeroplanes during peak hours, welcome some 5.5 million passengers annually and handle 100,000 tonnes of cargo per year.

By 2030, the airport is expected to have 37 parking lots and be capable of receiving as many 37 planes during peak hours, up to eight million passengers annually and 200,000 tonnes of cargo per year.

Currently it has a VND200 billion international terminal that could receive 600 passengers per hour and includes lounges, registration areas, canteen, and souvenir shop meeting international standards.

Source: VOV

 

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Border provinces urged to boost tourism development

Border provinces urged to boost tourism development

QĐND – Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 21:5 (GMT+7)

Vietnam’s border provinces need to pay more attention to developing their tourism sector and bring in more tourists to the country, industry insiders say.

Ly Mon, general director of Ha Long Tourism Joint Stock Company, told Thanh Nien many people often think that cross-border tourism is only for low-income tourists and thus not worth much attention.

However, six travel agencies in Quang Ninh Province just proved them wrong by having a successful program that brought in 296,000 tourists from China and total revenues of VND300 billion over the past three years.

Vietnam shares more than 4,550 kilometers of its land border with China, Laos and Cambodia. According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, cross-border tourists have accounted for more than 30 percent of total foreign arrivals to the country in the past few years, with arrivals from the Southeast Asian region growing rapidly.

Vu The Binh, head of the travel department at the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, said the natural resources and cultures of the country’s 25 border provinces offer great tourism potential.

“It’s the fault of the industry that the potential has not been fully tapped,” Binh said.

Luu Duc Ke, director of the Hanoitourist Company, said that during a recent trip to Lang Son, he found that the northern border province did not pay attention to developing tourism even though the sector contributed nearly 40 percent of its gross domestic product.

For example, many foreign tourists wanted to come and visit the villages where the ethnic minorities live, but the province didn’t consider such places as tourist sites, he said.

Analysts said although border provinces have tried to improve their infrastructure for tourism, the efforts have not been enough. The facilities at many border gates have deteriorated while customs procedures have not been modernized, they said.

Meanwhile, the quality of hotel, restaurant and entertainment services in many provinces has failed to cater to wealthy visitors who tend to spend a lot of money when travelling, they added.

Source: TN

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Saigontourist receives over 2,000 foreign maritime tourists

Saigontourist receives over 2,000 foreign maritime tourists

QĐND – Monday, November 16, 2009, 8:13 (GMT+7)

The Saigon Travel Service Company (Saigontourist) welcomed more than 2,000 foreign tourists and crew sailing aboard the cruise liner Costa Classica, which anchored at Navi Oil Port in Ho Chi Minh City on November 16.

The visitors, mostly from Italy, Spain, the UK, Japan and Germany, will visit Ho Chi Minh City and several other destinations in the central region such as Da Nang, Hoi An, My Son and Hue.

In the first 11 months of this year, Saigontourist welcomed over 62,000 maritime tourists.

Source: VNA

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Vietnam, Cambodia cooperate to develop tourism

Vietnam, Cambodia cooperate to develop tourism

QĐND – Saturday, November 14, 2009, 8:43 (GMT+7)

The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism in Ho Chi Minh City, Kien Giang and An Giang will be cooperating with each other to launch a tourism promotion programme in Cambodia.

Mr La Quoc Khanh, Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department for Culture, Sports and Tourism said that the programme would be held in Cambodia’s capital city of Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville City.

The programme focuses on promoting images of in the three Vietnamese localities, along with possible tourism investment opportunities.

Moreover, the programme, aimed at aiding in the introduction of big tourism events in Ho Chi Minh City, will also promote tourism cooperation between Vietnam and Cambodia by combining new services into the tours.

Source: Tuoi Tre

Translated by Ngoc Hung

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