Mekong Delta Green Tourism Week 2015

The Mekong Delta Green Tourism Week in 2015 is expected to spur developments in the regional tourism, contributing to the region’s socio-economic growth.

Deputy PM Vu Van Ninh had assigned the Steering Board for the Southwestern Region to host and cooperate with Can Tho City’s People’s Committee to inform relevant ministries, agencies and localities of the program.

The event will draw the participation of provinces and cities with tourism strength nationwide and other large cities in the Greater Mekong Sub-region countries of Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and a number of foreign organizations and businesses.

Cities and provinces in the Mekong Delta will introduce the advantages of the regional tourism together with tourist potentials and cultural products.

The program, organized from June 18-24, includes six main events of meetings, conferences, fairs, investment promotion in green tourism, solutions for tourism connections and development between localities in the region.

Strong inbound tourism arrivals for January

The General Statistic Office (GSO) has revealed the number of inbound arrivals for January jumped 6.6% on-month to an estimated 700,692 tourists.

In terms of mode of transport, international arrivals travelling by air was 561,883, by sea, 1,287 and by land, 131,926.

They predominantly came from the Republic of Korea (116,450 visitors, up 140.1% compared to last month) followed by Japan (57.793, 102.3%) and Denmark (3,108, 167.3%).

Quang Binh supports tourist accommodation construction

The People’s Committee of northern Quang Binh province has recently approved a plan to support construction cost for investors building hotels and restaurants in service of tourism in the locality.

Accordingly, a construction cost support of 500,000 VND (23 USD) per square metre will go to each restaurant project operating in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park and Bang tourism area that serves more than 150 visitors.

The support level of 10 million VND (460 USD) will go to a two-star hotel project for each bedroom, 15 million VND (690 USD) to a three-star hotel and 20 million VND (920 USD) to a four and five-star hotel.

Quang Binh is now home to 245 accommodation places with 3,848 rooms and about 7,000 beds.

In recent years, the province has seen a strong development in tourism, which is considered as its spearhead economic sector.

In 2014, Quang Binh received over 2.7 million tourists, nearly doubling the figure of 2013.

The province is well-known for various natural attractions, especially the ‘Kingdom of Caves’, a complex of over 300 caves, found in the Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park, which was recognised as a World Natural Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2013.

With the opening of Son Doong Cave in 2013, Quang Binh was instantly catapulted onto the bucket lists of travellers around the world.

Recently, the New York Times named Quang Binh as one of the most attractive destinations in Asia and eighth out of the world’s 52 top must-go sites for 2014, meanwhile the US magazine Business Insider has included Son Doong Cave in the list of 12 most impressive caves in the same year.