The local sea tourism having suffered bad performance in many previous years has gradually revived in recent times and this year it even has strong expectation of achieving better growth, local agents said.
A number of cruise ships operating in Asian regions have re-scheduled regular routes to Vietnam while some others running on routes around the world have begun dropping by a few small ports at home besides familiar destinations like Ho Chi Minh City and Nha Trang.
This year the Vietnamese government had announced the Tet holiday schedule much earlier, prompting people to rush to book tours, with travel agencies having less time to prepare for a variety of interesting tours.
More people want to take long distance tours, since this year the Tet holidays will be for 9 long days. Some local travel agents report that the number of inbound and outbound tours registered during Tet have increased by 30 percent compared to the same period last year.
Preliminary statistics show that companies of Vietnam tour have a “bumper crop” this Tet, despite the economic difficulties and high inflation. The number of travelers booking tours for Tet holiday has increased greatly.
Travel demand up, turnover up
The recent reports all have pointed out that 2011 was a prosperous year for travel firms, especially the ones in the south. Despite the economic difficulties, which forced people to fasten their belt, people still spent part of their income on traveling and relaxing.
The People’s Committee of Quang Ninh Province has ordered that tour boats operating on Halong Bay be painted white in order to renew their image following the bay’s designation as one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. Most boat operators, however, are opposed to the decision.
Under the provincial order, 500 tour boats operating on the bay must be repainted white and fit with a brown sail (if the boat uses a sail) before April 30. Dragon boats can be painted with a dragon head in traditional colours. Boats which fail to comply will lose their permission to operate on Halong Bay.
The enterprises operating in the tourism sector have proposed government agencies to allow them to quote the prices of products and services in popular foreign currencies such as Euro or US dollars, instead of Vietnam dong, in order to make it easier to understand for foreign travelers.
Under the current regulations, Vietnam dong is the only currency which can be used in the transactions in the Vietnamese territory, while the prices of services and products also must be quoted in Vietnam dong.
Mr. Peter Grove and Mrs. Kate Goswell (from UK), arriving on Vietnam Airlines flight 120, became the first foreign tourists to step foot in Vietnam on the first day of 2012.
They were among 287 other tourists from Germany and 256 from UK who were welcomed at Tan Son Nhat airport in a ceremony organized by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
A seminar on tourism development co-ordination among central coastal provinces was held in Tuy Hoa city in the south-central province of Phu Yen on December 19.
This was one of activities marking the National Tourism Year.
Seven central coastal provinces including Thua Thien-Hue, Da Nang, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen and Khanh Hoa occupy one third of the national coastal landscape.
The running out of tours and the overloading will not be seen in this New year tour season. Since people have to fasten their belt, travel firms’ offices seem to remain quiet with limited bookings.
“The number of travelers booking tour for this Christmas and New Year tour does not increase greatly in comparison with the previous year because the Tet holiday comes just several days after the New Year holiday”, said an executive of Vietravel.
The successes and failures of Italy’s tourism industry can be very valuable for the policy-making process to develop Vietnam travel industry.
This was assessed by a Vietnamese cadre delegation in a refresher course on tourism management run by Fondazione Campus University in Italy on December 3-18.
The 22-member delegation was led by Pham Minh Chinh, member of the Party Central Committee and General
Secretary of the Quang Ninh Provincial Party Committee.
Most towers in the My Son sanctuary, a world cultural heritage site in central Quang Nam Province, are in danger of collapse, an official said.
“Only three towers out of 20 are still intact, the others having seriously deteriorated,” said Nguyen Cong Khiet, deputy head of the My Son Management Board.
He added that inspections were carried out annually to assess the towers’ state, emphasising that flooding in October, which inundated the towers by up to 2m, had further worsened the situation by weakening foundations.
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