Vietnam’s tourism grows 19%

Vietnam National Administration of Tourism estimates the country welcomed 558,751 international travellers in May representing an increase of 19.7% over the same month last year.

Thailand’s outbound trips to Vietnam ranked 10th with 21,281 trips down 2.5% from 21,828 trips last year.

China led the field as the top source during May with 148,606 trips improving 65.0% from 90,064 followed by South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the United States.

 Neigbouring Cambodia was in seventh place supplying 25,829 trips, up 16.4% from 22,184 trips during the same month last year.

All of the country’s top markets are in the Asia/Pacific region with the exception of  the US and Russia (eighth).

The bulk of arrivals in May (424,602) passed through the two main aviation gateways Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

For January to May, international tourist arrivals reached 2,973,712 visits, a slight decrease of 1.4% over the same period last year.

VNAT updated its data on its website, Monday, sourced from the government’s statistics office.

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Red river culture, sports and tourism week kicked off

On Saturday, May 11 2013, the opening ceremony of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Week and the second Red Flamboyant Festival were officially held in Hai Phong City, which triggered another fantastic National Tourism Year.

 
With a wide range of performances: art shows, water puppet performance, culinary exhibition, fireworks or boat racing, etc, this year’s festival promises a golden chance for Hai Phong City to differentiate itself with distinctive features of the culture and nature, as well as those of the Red River Delta provinces in general.

Addressing the event, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung indicated that tourism is the critical economic sector that not only contributes a massive scale on the development of the country, but also promotes the images of Vietnam all over the world.

The opening ceremony attracted thousands of both domestic and international visitors thanks to a lively ambiance with a series of enthusiastic art performance and fireworks.
Among Vietnam tourist attraction and the Red River Delta localities, Hai Phong holds plentiful unique cultural values of the ancient civilization. It is blessed with diverse natural resources to develop sea and island tourism, notably Cat Ba island close to Ha Long Bay.

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Vietnamese restaurants in the list of top 101 asia's best

The famous US food website Daily Meal has just selected five restaurants in Vietnam to be in the list of the 101 best restaurants in Asia.

In which, four restaurants come from Ho Chi Minh City: “Lemongrass” was ranked the 21st, “Quan Ngon” took the 28th place, “Hoi An” came up with the 71st place and finally “Mandarine” with the 95th position.

“Le Maison 1888” is the only restaurant of Da Nang to be listed in the list, which was ranked 58th.

The result of the list of 101 best restaurants in Asia was collected from food critics, writer and veteran expatriates in Asia; and was based on the variety of dishes, service quality, cuisine value and taste.

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New Hanoi – Bangkok route by VietJetAir

Low-cost VietJetAir has high hopes that its latest service linking Hanoi and Bangkok will boost business and leisure travel between the two cities during the tourist low-season.

The airline’s business development manager, Desmond Lin, said the daily connection between the two capital cities should increase two-way traffic with a profitable mix of business and leisure traffic.

“This new route will help build demand and encourage growth … it will promote Hanoi, as a city of cultural heritage and cuisine. The connection will also help business travellers.”

In the near future, VietJetAir will launch more domestic and international routes, he added.

VietJetAir says it has inked a deal with the Tourism Authority of Thailand to launch a series of promotional programmes and incentives with the airlines.

Other airlines serving the route include THAI and Thai AirAsia, but they are not currently engaged in joint promotions with TAT.

Launched 1 June, the new Vietjet flight departs Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport daily at 1050 and arrives in Bangkok at 1240. The return flight departs from Suvarnabhumi Airport at 1325 and arrives in Hanoi at 1525.

The airline launched its first international route linking Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok, 10 February. It currently operates 300 flights weekly using a fleet of new Airbus A320 aircraft.

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Wi-Fi covers Danang

Danang a major port city and tourism gateway in central Vietnam will provide free internet access for residents and tourists by September.

Originally, installation was supposed to be completed by June. The city plans to spend nearly US$2 million to install free wireless internet.

Danang Department of Information and Communication director, Pham Kim Son, said nearly 400 Wi-Fi routers with 2.4 and 5.8 GHz bandwidths will be installed at tourist sites, universities, state agencies and on electrical pylons in city streets.

“The system allows 10,000 simultaneous accesses at any one time,” he said.

He added: “Installing wireless internet is necessary for the development of society, the economy and information technology…it will also serve as a foundation for the establishment of electronic government.”

Earlier, Vietnam’s famed tourism towns – Hoi An in the central province of Quang Nam, Halong in the northern province of Quang Ninh, and Hue in the central province of Thua Thien – Hue – established Wi-Fi systems to provide free internet connections to locals and tourists.

In addition, by 2015 Quang Ninh province will provide more free Wi-Fi service at economic and tourist hub cities such as Uong Bi, Cam Pha, Van Don and Mong Cai.

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