RoK promotes tourism in Vietnam

The Republic of Korea (RoK) Tourism Organisation (KTO) launched the ‘RoK Tourism – Encouraging Vietnam’ campaign in Hanoi on April 2 after the success of the ‘RoK Tourism Year in Vietnam’ last year.

The campaign aims to boost the RoK tourism in Vietnam in 2014 as well as call for relevant agencies and enterprises to join activities to raise the ‘Encouraging Vietnam’ fund.

All the proceeds from the fund will be used to award Vietnamese athletes who participated in the 17th Asian Games and Asian Para Games this September in Incheon, the RoK.

During the RoK Tourism Year in 2013, the RoK saw a rise of around 10% in the number of Vietnamese tourists to the RoK compared to 2012. The number of Vietnamese vistiors to this country was estimated to reach 34.661 by March 11 this year, up 38.7% over the same period last year.

On the same day, the KTO also presented the ‘2013 Korea Travel Award’to its partners that have significantly contributed to the campaign ‘Bringing the RoK’s Winter Fun to Vietnam’ which was launched by the KTO, in collaboration with the Vietnam Airlines Corporation’s Northern Branch in November 2013.

The award has three main categories: ‘King of sale people in low season’, ‘The best Sale Partner’ and ‘The most impressive new partner’, of which each category includes a first, a second and two third prizes.

Seafood, tourism links urged to boost growth in central coast

Experts have called for the central coast provinces to take measures and make policies to intensify cooperation between their aquaculture and tourism sectors to push for their economic growth.

Aquaculture and tourism are among the strengths of central Vietnam and proper policies will help these sectors fare well, experts said at a seminar in Phu Yen Province last week.

Experts had spent much time discussing how to achieve sustainable aquaculture development in the region in the coming time. They also raised a point that the coastal provinces have many good seafood products but their fishing and seafood processing capacities have not matched the region’s huge potential.

Tran Dinh Thien, director of the Vietnam Institute of Economics, pointed out that investment promotion forums held in recent years had mainly focused on what the aquaculture sector could offer and how to increase output, instead of finding markets for it.

“Central Vietnam is known for such specialties as ocean tuna, lobster, fish sauce and hard-working locals, and the Government has issued a host of supporting policies for this region. However, the central coast region has not been able to take advantage of these to fuel growth,” Thien said.

Thien suggested that in a long term, the provinces combine strengths of the aquaculture and tourism sectors to serve as a fresh boost to their economic growth.

“Distinctive spots and cultural diversities are the advantages for the localities to attract more tourists and then sell their original seafood products to these visitors,” he said.

Doan Xuan Hoa, deputy director of the Department of Processing and Trade for Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Products and Salt Production, supported the idea to combine tourism and aquaculture advantages. However, he urged the provinces to manage to sell more value-added seafood products to visitors, instead of fresh and semi-processed items as currently.

Hoa noted that annual catches from the sea reached 2-2.2 million tons and were unlikely to move higher in the coming years due to the limited capacity of the fishing fleet.

At the seminar, corporate representatives asked for more supporting policies from leaders of the coastal provinces to facilitate coordination of the two sectors in promoting products.

Mui Ne at dawn

If tourists choose to visit the beach resort area of Mui Ne in Phan Thiet City in summer, they should get up early to admire a beautiful dawn. Under the twilight, fishing boats anchor along the shoreline in droves after a long night fi shing off shore while locals go diving to catch seafood.

When the dawn comes, visitors will certainly have a feeling of peace and romance as they watch waves gently breaking on the shore. It looks as if the white-sand beaches were colored golden by the fi rst sunbeam of a new day.

Jogging on the beach or swimming in cool seawater is highly recommended as this helps people refresh themselves and relieve stress at work.

Mui Ne tourist area, around 20 kilometers from downtown Phan Th iet City in Binh Th uan Province, is endowed with stunning beaches, splendid sand dunes, old fi shing villages and landmark Cham temples.

Many local and international tourists often choose the place for their holidays. Th ere, they can also play a variety of games such as surfi ng, kite fl ying and fi shing.

Fishing boats come back after a long night fi shing offshore A splendid view of Mui Ne Beach at sunrise.

Quang Ninh aims at int’l tourism hub status

The northern coastal province of Quang Ninh plans to become an international tourism hub able to compete with foreign hotspots.

The target was set in a recently approved master plan on the province’s tourism development to 2020 with a vision for 2030.

Accordingly, Quang Ninh aims to rake in annual tourism revenue of US$1.5 billion, along with 7.4 million foreign tourist arrivals and 8 million domestic visitors every year by 2020.

Tourism earnings are set to account for 10% of the local gross domestic product, twice the current figure, over the period.

Quang Ninh is home to Ha Long Bay, a world heritage site, and Yen Tu Buddhist centre, among other popular destinations for visitors.

In 2013, the province served 7.5 million holidaymakers, a year-on-year rise of 7%, and earned VND5 trillion (US$235 million) from this sector.

Foreign visitors to Hue increase sharply

The Hue relics complex in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue welcomed more than 500,645 visitors in the first quarter of 2014, including 320,740 foreigners.

Phan Thanh Hai, Director of the Hue Relics Preservation Centre, said total revenue from entrance fees reached nearly VND38 billion, a-year-on-year increase of 20.26%.

To attract more visitors to Hue relics, the centre has introduced many preferential policies for travelers, including a 20% discount on tickets for all groups of more than 10 people, 20% discounts on electric car services, 10-20% discounts on beverage services, and free entrance tickets for students from universities and colleges.

The center is also offering 50% discounts on tickets for every audience attending Nha Nhac (royal court music) performances at Duyet Thi Duong theatre in the morning and afternoon, and presenting a free tour guide for a group of 50 or more when visiting the Imperial Palace.

Currently, the Hue Relics Preservation Centre is actively preparing for Hue Festival 2014 with a series of main activities to take place at Dai Noi (the citadel's inner city), Ky Dai (Flag Tower), Ngo Mon (Noon Gate), Luong Dinh Estrafe and An Dinh Palace.

The price of tickets for a night banquet at the Royal Palace costs VND2 million per person and VND100,000 each for an art programme at Dai Noi and An Dinh Palaces.

Vietnam Airlines to join Vietnam Int’l Travel Mart

National flag carrier, Vietnam Airlines, has announced its continued participation in this year’s upcoming – Vietnam International Travel Mart (VITM) – set to take place in Hanoi from April 3-6.

At the event, Vietnam Airlines will be launching a variety of special offers and deals on ticket prices at highly discounted fares and introducing tour packages for the summer of 2014 in addition to staging some highly entertaining game shows.

Along with these activities to promote its products, a seminar to provide travel agencies with updated and useful information on the airlines policies, air routes and ancillary tourism products will be held.

Tourists to Hoa Binh up nearly 38%

The northern mountainous province of Hoa Binh welcomed 650,000 visitors in the first quarter of the year including 48,000 foreign arrivals, up 37.4% from last year’s same quarter, said provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Director Bui Ngoc Lam.

He added that revenues from the tourism sector reached nearly US$200 billion in the quarter, up 25.5% from the comparable period last year.

Since the beginning of 2013, more than 70 travel companies from Hanoi, Da Nang, and HCM City have been actively promoting tourism in the province and the European Tourism Association has also been instrumental in developing tourism.

Lam said that as part of a bid to promote Hoa Binh as an attractive tourism destination, in recent years, the locality has focused on launching tourism packages in different forms such as cultural tourism, eco-tourism, and resort.

It also has a plan to upgrade Hoa Binh reservoir area in hopes that it will become a major national tourism attraction.

This year’s tourism promotion will be focused on improving state management capacity, increasing the quality of human resources, intensifying investment in preserving and conserving cultural and historical relics and offering a trans-tour in the northwestern provinces to create stable income for local residents.

Binh Duong promotes traditional handicraft village

Traditional handicraft villages in Binh Duong province has great development potential and holds significant role in the growth of the provincial tourism sector, said the Binh Duong online on April 2.

According to the newspaper, to create high effects of traditional handicraft villages, support from all sides should be necessary.

The quality of tourism staffs has contributed to low tourism services.

Surveys showed that the ecology and traditional handicraft villages were limited to their potentials which should only be solved by providing investment into infra-constructions and pollution treatments.

Handicraft products and traditional handicraft villages linked to tourism development have been prioritised to be offered with funding for HR training and encouragement of local craftsmen.

Handicraft villages should be supported with funds and organise fairs to sell out their products.

As those necessary steps are taken, breakthroughs of new rural area shall be effective.

Dr. Phitak Siriwong from Silpakorn University (Thailand) said: “The products from handicraft villages shall be refined to attract more tourists which in turn helps the village to restore and develop.”

Aside from tourism aspects including culture, festival, site touring, handicraft villages in Binh Duong province have gradually known by visitors. However, to promote such potentials, it is necessary that more public awareness should be promoted.

Over the past time, provincial tourism sector has made some active notions for simulating the growth by festival organisation and documentary film making to introduce products and tourism services of the province.

Vietnamese Pottery Festival 2010 was firstly held in Binh Duong province. Movies and films have been made to broadcast images of Binh Duong including the handicraft villages. Exhibitions and fairs have been organised to introduce products from handicraft villages.

For the time to come, provincial tourism sector shall coordinate with tourist companies in the province to organise surveys and idea collection regarding tours to traditional handicraft villages.

At recent workshop on “Handicraft villages and development – Binh Duong experience”, Dr. Ong Sen Huat, an expert in tourism management of Malaya University from Malaysia highly evaluated the efforts of local tourism sector in restoring traditional handicraft villages.

He added that image broadcasting holds vital role in developing tourism linked to traditional handicraft villages.