Premium cruise liners are currently in vogue for travel aficionados as they give holiday-makers a new tourist experience when discovering the beauty of sought-after destinations, according to Vietnamese travel agencies.

A tourist boat on Ha Long Bay.

Being billed as floating five-star hotels, cruise liners provide passengers on board with a line-up of top-notch services, such as diverse entertaining activities, sports and vibrant game shows.

“With cruise tourism, people have the chance to visit different places without wasting time to change the means of transport”, said a tourist from Ho Chi Minh City who went on a superior cruise to China, the Republic of Korea and Japan.

Thanks to such amenities, cruise liners have received a rapturous welcome from travellers recently, creating motivation for travel companies to offer a string of cruise tourism products.

The Saigontourist Travel Service Company is offering top-end services on five-star cruise ships at low cost to customers traveling to Penang (Malaysia) during the April holiday. The tours are being sold from 9.99 million VND (444.2 USD).

The company also offers other luxurious voyages to Asian and European countries.

According to Doan Thi Thanh Tra, marketing and communications director at Saigontourist, the company is cooperating with the world’s leading cruise company Royal Caribbean International to provide Vietnamese customers with premium tourism packages. The passengers will have the chance to enjoy diversified services and abundant sea routes at competitive prices.

In the first two months of the year, the company served nearly 600 Vietnamese on luxurious cruise liners and welcomed 8,350 holiday-makers and crew members from eight international ships docking at Ha Long (Quang Ninh), Tien Sa (Da Nang), Chan May (Hue) and Tan Cang Cai Mep (Ba Ria Vung Tau), Tra said.

She highlighted that along with enlarging its network nationwide, the company has paid attention to increasing the quality and number of tour guides while focusing on attracting travellers to experience cruise tourism in key markets.

Together with the travel company, the coastal city of Da Nang also sees its potential in cruise tourism.

The city has created the conditions for international cruise ships to dock at the locality by upgrading Da Nang port into a specialised seaport for tourism.

In a bid to serve cruise tourists during their stay at the city, the municipal tourism sector has prioritised developing new tours and increasing service quality in such tourist attractions as the Museum of Cham Sculpture, the Marble Mountains and Hai Van pass. It has also taken heed of investing in infrastructure, and is building new destinations to visit like Than Tai hot spring resort and Asia Park.

The city is expected to receive 84 cruise liners with 83,630 holiday-makers in 2016, surging 196.7 percent from 2015. In the first quarter, some 39 foreign ships carrying 39,700 people haboured at Da Nang port.

VNA