Southern tourism triangle under review

Tourism authorities from HCM City and Binh Thuan and Lam Dong provinces met in Binh Thuan on Wednesday to review the performance of the 2010-12 tourism development triangle.

The triangle, created in 2007, was aimed at enhancing the ability of each locality in offering visitors unique and competitive tourism products by jointly launching cultural, sporting and other tourism products.

Airfare cuts to boost domestic tour firms

A 40 per cent discount on domestic fares by Vietnam Airlines is expected to help members of the HCM City Tourism Association arrange low-cost tours and boost domestic travel.

The carrier will offer the discounts on routes like HCM City to Ha Noi, Da Nang, Phu Quoc, and Hai Phong from now through the year-end, according to association deputy head Nguyen Thi Khanh.

She said the association had chosen leading HCM City-based tour operators like Saigontourist, Ben Thanh Tourist, Vietravel, Fiditour, and Van Hoa Viet Co for the programme.

A similar programme was organised by the Viet Nam National Administration for Tourism in 2009 when the tourism sector faced difficulty.

Tours snapped up for long holiday weekend

Domestic and outbound tours are getting sold out three weeks before the April 30-May 1 holiday that come immediately after a weekend.

Vietravel said many of its tours are fully booked, while others are more than 70 per cent sold. The travel firm expects 25,000 people to go on domestic and outbound tours, an increase of 20 per cent over last year.

Saigontourist has sold 65 per cent of the 16,000 tour spots it has.

For Fiditour, which began to accept bookings only two weeks ago, the number is 40 per cent.

Ha Noi Redtours said the four-day three-night Da Nang-Hoi An-Ba Na tour is the most popular this year because of the international fireworks festival at that time in Da Nang.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News