Celebrity Century makes maiden call in Vietnam

Passengers of the Celebrity Century cruise ship are seen at Tan Cang-Cai Mep Port in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province on January 27.

The Celebrity Century ship of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. with thousands of passengers on board docked at the Tan Cang-Cai Mep Port in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province on January 27.

Passengers of the cruise ship are from the United States, Europe and other countries and continents. They visited popular tourist destinations in HCMC, Vung Tau and Ba Ria cities.

The tourist sites include the Notre Dame Cathedral, Post Office, City Hall and Ben Thanh Market in HCMC, and the statue of Jesus Christ, pagodas and temples, and Bach Dinh (White Palace) in Vung Tau City. In Ba Ria City, passengers of the cruise ship looked into the daily life of locals and the techniques of making rice cake and rice wine, and visited ancient houses.

The Celebrity Century left for Chan May Port in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue on January 27 evening, according to Saigontourist Travel Service Company which is arranging the Vietnam visit for the cruise ship.

The ship will sail back to Vietnam from February 27 to 28 on the Nha Trang-Vung Tau route and from March 10 to 12 on the Vung Tau-Hue route.

The Celebrity Century features restaurants serving international food, spa and bar facilities, meeting rooms, a movie theater, an outdoor swimming pool and a golf driving range. It can carry over 2,600 passengers and crewmembers.

In addition to Vietnam, the cruise ship’s itineraries include Manila and Boracay of the Philippines, Yangon in Myanmar and Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei.

Vietnam – a favourite destination for visitors from RoK

Vietnam is one of the top destinations for visitors from the Republic of Korea (RoK) in 2015 besides Cambodia, Thailand and Japan, according to the RoK’ largest tour agency Hana Tour Co.

The demand for international air travel was estimated to rise 28 percent year-on-year to about 250,000 people in January, the RoK Yonhap New Agency on January 27 cited the Hana Tour Co.’s figures, adding the number of outbound travellers will be 154 in February, up 22 percent from a year ago.

Meanwhile, the RoK’s second largest travel agency Mode Tour Co. said it saw a 30 percent surge in the number of people travelling abroad via its agents in January. Half of them travelled to Southeast Asia.

According to Yonhap, the cut of fuel surcharge on flight tickets by the country’s leading carriers such as Korean Air and Asiana Airlines due to plummeting oil prices is attributable to the growing number of the RoK’s outbound visitors.

Vietnam’s tourism promoted in India

Vietnam’s top tourism destinations and preferential policies were presented to Indian representatives at a gala held by the Vietnamese Embassy on January 27 in the city of Kolkata in the West Bengal state.

Themed “Vietnam – an amazing destination for Indian tourists”, the event attracted nearly 200 guests from the local government and 80 travel and media agencies.

Vietnamese Ambassador Ton Sinh Thanh hailed the significance of the tourism promotion gala, as it is the first to be held in Kolkata – one of the three largest cities of India. He also spoke to the value of the time-honoured friendship and strategic partnership between the two countries, which has seen rapid development both in depth and breadth.

Overcoming the ravages of war, Vietnam has risen to become a dynamic economy and an attractive destination for travellers, with eight UNESCO-recognised heritage and numerous beautiful beaches and historical relic sites. Nearly 8 million foreigners choose Vietnam for their holidays each year, with the number of tourists from India increasing from 30,000 in 2013 to almost 55,000 last year, said Thanh.

He expressed his hope that India Jet Airways’ new direct air route to Vietnam in 2014 and Vietnam Airlines’ and VietJetAir’s plans to offer flights to India will lead to booming tourism cooperation between the two countries.

Head of the West Bengal Tourism Department Umapanda Mukherjee said he hopes the Vietnamese Embassy will serve as a bridge to connect local travel agencies with Vietnam as well as facilitating the operations of Indian enterprises and travel companies within Vietnam.

Mekong Delta provinces cooperate in destination management

Representatives from three Mekong Delta provinces have met at a workshop on supporting tourism destination management in Phu Quoc island district to discuss measures to boost tourism cooperation and make tourism products more competitive and public-private partnership (PPP).

Participants at the workshop co-organised by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism and the Environmentally and Socially Responsible Tourism Capacity Development Program funded by the European Union (EU-ESRT) made a number of practical proposals to support tourism destination management in the region.

EU-ESRT expert Robert Travers said the major challenge for the region is that most visitors stay here only one night and they consider it just an additional place during their journey, not a destination.

To deal with the challenge, he said State management agencies and businesses should devise proper solutions, focussing on certain markets. In addition, the State should closely coordinate with the Mekong Delta region to develop special and unique tourism centres.

Participants proposed improving the quality of resorts and accommodation units along rivers and agricultural tourism, particularly fruit gardens.

The workshop is considered a follow-up technical support from the EU-ESRT project after the meeting held on October 18, 2014 in Kien Giang province on tourism development cooperation.

The EU-ESRT project reported to the workshop results of a fact-finding tour of three provinces – An Giang, Kien Giang and Can Tho – from January 12-27 of domestic and external consultants with the aim of assisting the three provinces in developing tourism products and tourism promotion plans.

Switzerland promotes tourism in Viet Nam

Representatives from Switzerland's tourism industry met with several travel Vietnamese travel companies on Tuesday in Ha Noi to promote Swiss tourism in the country.

According to Ivan Breiter, director of South East Asia of Switzerland Tourism, Switzerland attracted foreign tourists with its beautiful towns, mountains, art fairs, winter sports and watches.

Last year, Lucerne, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country, attracted more than 1,000 Vietnamese visitors.

Several local travel companies already offer tours to Switzerland that take in France and Italy as well.

During the meeting with Swiss Ambassador to Viet Nam Andrej Motyl, representatives of Switzerland Tourism presented the Grand Tour of Switzerland, which is a nationwide tour spanning more than 1,600km.

Special discounts will be offered by travel companies this year to encourage more Vietnamese people to visit Switzerland.

Mekong region looks at tourism links

Phu Quoc Island hosted a workshop yesterday to discuss tourism co-operation between An Giang and Kien Giang Provinces and Can Tho City.

Robert Travers, a foreign expert on Destination Development and Management of the EU-ESRT Programme, said a key challenge is the chronically short length of stay (just one night), with Viet Nam being seen as an excursion or add-on destination rather than a leisure destination in its own right.

To address this, tourism businesses and the Government should come together to adopt a market-led approach, targeting longer staying visitor segments in the domestic and international markets, he said.

The experts attending the workshop suggested that the industry and Government should work more closely together in the Mekong Delta region to create tourism hubs of excellence that can offer unique experiences.

They said the delta needs to be different from other parts of Viet Nam, warning that at the moment the thrust of development is making it like everywhere else.

They suggested that quality riverside resorts and lodges, expanded water-based options, better orchards and agri-tourism visits, and higher quality homestay are needed to enhance the Mekong tourism products.

The workshop was held to provide technical support from the EU-ESRT following a High level meeting on tourism co-operation between the three Mekong Delta destinations held in Rach Gia, Kien Giang Province, last October.

At the meeting, representatives of the three localities signed a memorandum of understanding for co-operation to develop tourism in the region.

To enhance product competitiveness and public-private dialogue, the EU-ESRT initiated and supported Destination Management Organisations in eight north-western provinces, three central coastal provinces and three Mekong Delta localities.

The workshop was chaired by the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism with technical support from the EU-funded Environmentally and Socially Responsible Tourism Capacity Development Programne (known as the EU-ESRT Programme).

The workshop was seen as an opportunity for the EU-ESRT Programme to report about the results obtained by a team of international and domestic experts who recently visited the three Mekong localities.

Their aim was to study and support development of tourism products and make destination promotion plans.

The workshop was attended by 50 Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, VNAT, European Union Delegation to Viet Nam officials, tourism administrators from the three localities, and tourism colleges and operators in the region. 

VNA