Danang and Hanoi cities are promoting travel companies and venues in the two cities via the Impressive Vietnam Grand Sale 2010, one of the activities of the national marketing campaign called Vietnam – Your Destination to woo both local and foreign travelers in 2010.

Da Nang city

The two cities are promoting the venues on the website of the Vietnam – Your Destination program at http://www.impressivevietnam.vn. The program will take place during August and September.

Danang is promoting 30 resorts, hotels, travel companies, supermarkets and other venues with special discounts from 5% to 40% off. Some companies are giving coupons for guests, and other kinds of promotions.

The capital city of Hanoi has 18 venues, many of them souvenir shops and galleries with special prices from 10% to 25% off.

In learning from HCMC, the two cities will carry out the Impressive Vietnam Grand Sale 2010. Over the two months, shopping centers, retail outlets and other traders will offer promotions, discounting products and services for both locals and foreigners from 10% to 40%.

Vu The Binh, head of the Travel Department under the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, told the Daily on Monday that Hanoi and Danang were almost complete with the registration process for traders to join the program. However, HCMC is in the process, so the city has yet to announce the list of traders.

In HCMC, La Quoc Khanh, deputy director of the city’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, told the Daily late last month that the department was taking registrations from traders this month.

He said the program would be a bit different from those in Danang and Hanoi because the city’s tourism sector has a Standard Tourism Service system as well as a yearly program initiated by the Department of Industry and Trade.

Based on that, the promotion program in August would attract around 63 shopping centers and restaurants that have been recognized under the city’s Standard Tourism Service.

The forthcoming program will be an additional promotion event alongside the yearly promotion program of the Department of Industry and Trade.

Along with the promotion program, the tourism sector has planned to ask the Central Government to give visa-fee exemption to international travelers in this August and September to woo more visitors to the country in the low season of the inbound sector.

“The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism expects to submit the requests to the Government next month,” Binh said.

Last year, at the request of the ministry, the Prime Minister agreed to give the exemption to foreign tourists to travel to the country under the packaged tours of the Impressive Vietnam promotion program. The program was closed at the end of 2009.

* Five northern and central provinces have inked an agreement to tap the tourism potential along the East-West Economic Corridor as well as to jointly develop tourism products to woo more tourists.

Under the agreement signed in Hue last Thursday, Hanoi City, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Thua Thien-Hue and Binh Dinh provinces will coordinate with one another in launching tourism itineraries and tourist destinations typical of each locality.

Tourism programs will soon be designed to attract travelers in caravan tours through border gates in central provinces and to lure visitors from China through northern border gates into the central region, according to the agreement. They will make joint efforts to tap tourism potentials of the trans-Asia highway and the East-West Economic Corridor, the latter linking Thailand, Laos and Central Vietnam.

The five provinces will also regularly share experiences in tourism development, and create favorable conditions for investors to set up shop of open their representatives offices in each respective locality.

Pham Tien Dung, deputy director of Nghe An Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said that tours in the provinces should also be built on the success of the pre-existing Heritage Road.