Can Gio listed among top 100 sustainable tourism destinations

HCM City Can Gio Mangrove Forest is listed among the Global Top 100 Sustainable Destinations or in other words the world's greenest holiday destinations.

It was drawn up by making open calls on social media by TravelMole.com, Vision on Sustainable Tourism, Totem Tourism and Green Destinations followed by a selection by 30 international tourism sustainability experts.

"The Global Top 100 aims to recognise tourism destinations that have worked hard to make a difference and take sustainability seriously," GreenDestinations.info director Albert Salman said.

"Nevertheless, no destination is sustainable for the full 100 per cent."

For the Top 100 the only available global assessment tool for this purpose, the Global Sustainable Tourism Review, GSTR, was used.

Salman said: "Carbon emission of travel has not been calculated by us. This is what we want to add next year. We recommend travellers to compensate their carbon emission".

Info stands launched in town

VNPT HCMC under Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), in coordination with Le Digital Co. Ltd., on January 28 inaugurated stands in the downtown area to provide telephone and information services.

Each telephone-information stand comes with a 47-inch touch screen and an Android application to provide city residents and tourists with a GPS map and recommendations of nearby restaurants, hotels, coffee shops and shopping venues. Information at those stands is available in both Vietnamese and English.

In addition to cultural and art activities, events, promotional programs and news, users can find information about activities and policies of the city government and market updates.

Huynh Quang Liem, director of VNPT HCMC, said the telephone-information stands are a source of useful information for not only city residents but also visitors. The stands also provide free Wifi within a range of 100 meters.

Users can also make 113, 114 and 115 emergency calls at the stands.

Le Quoc Hung, general director of Le Digital, said Le Digital and VNPT HCMC would integrate news and update data.

In the initial phase, there are four stands with one in front of the Opera House, one at the Central Post Office, one at the Youth Cultural House and one at 125 Le Loi Boulevard.

The company plans to open more stands. Around 200 stands are expected to go up towards 2016.

This is part of a telecom infrastructure development program until 2020 of the HCMC Department of Information and Communications.

Quang Nam achieves six-year tourism development target

Quang Nam Province has achieved its target of 9 per cent annual growth in tourism in 2009-14.

It ranks fourth in attracting international visitors behind only Ha Noi, HCM City, and Quang Ninh. Last year it received 1.7 million of them.

The province's deputy chairman, Nguyen Chin, said the focus would be on upgrading infrastructure, exploiting the tourism cluster in the south, and

spending appropriately on tourism promotion.

Central port receives first 2,500 tourists in 2015

Chan May seaport in central Thua Thien-Hue province welcomed its first liner of the year carrying more than 2,500 foreign travellers on January 29.

The port is expected to receive 60,000 arrivals in 2015, facilitated by recent upgrades to the port conducted by the province.

Notably, Thua Thien-Hue signed an agreement with the world’s second largest cruise operator, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. Under the pact, the

US-based cruise line will invest in the overhaul of the port’s harbour No. 1 to serve larger ships accommodating up to 5,500 passengers.

According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the locality saw more than 178,480 arrivals so far this year, including 70,218 foreign visitors. It generated a total tourism revenue of over 216.3 billion VND (10 million USD), an 11 percent increase from the same period last year.

This year, Thua Thien-Hue strives to attract 3.1-3.3 million tourists, including 1.1-1.3 million from foreign countries, with a potential revenue of 3.1-3.2 trillion VND (144-149 million USD) overall, an annual gain of 15-18 percent.

Chan May Port, located between two central tourism hubs of Da Nang and Hue, is the most convenient gateway to the East Sea as well as the East-West Economic Corridor connecting Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.

One of the most mouth-watering dishes in Nha Trang City must be grilled pork skewers. The dish is a specialty of Ninh Hoa town, which is about 30 kilometers north of Nha Trang in Khanh Hoa Province.

To prepare it, pork is mixed with garlic, pepper and sugar, wrapped on sticks, and grilled over burning coal. In the grilling process, the pork sticks should be gently rotated to make sure the meat is well done.

Diners are advised to dip the meat into a kind of sauce made from ground pork, peanuts, salt, sugar and fish sauce. What is special about this sauce is it is cooked for three hours before it becomes a thick mixture.

Grilled pork rolls are served with rice pancakes, and fresh and pickled vegetables. A combination of tender pork, dipping sauce, vegetables and crisp pancakes unleashes a tasty flavor like no other.

Pork skewers can be found virtually everywhere but only Ninh Hoa residents know how to maintain the genuine flavor of the dish.