Art show wows tourists

Foreign tourists in Quang Ninh have been enjoying free art shows featuring Vietnamese musical instruments.

Hosted by the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the shows feature monochord, dan da (stone xylophone) performances, and ritual dances.

The nightly one-hour show attracts about 200 people, mostly South Korean, Chinese and Japanese.

It is being held at the Viet Nam-Japan Cultural Palace until August 15. Tickets for the show will then go on sale.

The culture department also plans to hold several outdoor sport games, calligraphy demonstrations, and displays of Vietnamese traditional music instruments.

EWEC Trade and Tourism Fair opens in Da Nang

As many as 300 enterprises from Vietnam, Thailand and Laos are showcasing their products at the International East-West Economic Corridor (EWEC) Trade and Tourism Fair which opened in Da Nang city on August 8.

Some 500 pavilions at the fair display a variety of tourism products and services, trade and investment projects, consumer goods, electronics and information technology, food processing, interior decoration, garment and textiles, and school facilities.

The event provides a good opportunity for enterprises in the corridor to seek business partners and expand their markets.

The fair will run until August 13.

Hanoi considers removing tourist cyclos

Hanoi is planning to stop the use of cyclos in order to improve the local traffic situation, said Secretary of Hanoi Party Committee Pham Quang Nghi.

At a recent meeting with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Nghi said the city will no longer use any means of transportation which does not fit in with Hanoi's traffic plans, adding that the city will buy cyclos back from their owners and also help to arrange jobs for them.

The removal of tourist cyclos had been proposed previously by many municipal agencies who said that cyclos also often ran in a long row on streets and cross T-junctions and intersections, leading to traffic jams. Meanwhile, it's not easy to deal with violations because, after being caught, many drivers run away and traffic police are only able to arrest some of them. People who are detained insisted that they go in a row of only five cyclos, and are unaware of how many others follow them.

Hanoi licensed four enterprises to operate tourist cyclos in 2009.  However, in many cases, cyclos adversely affect the operation of other vehicles, causing traffic congestion.

Nonetheless, the removal has faced controversy and many local people said that cylos are seen as a cultural feature of Hanoi's Old Quarter. It's poor management that resulted in the boom of this means of transportation, as well as the violations committed by them.

Vietnam Airlines announces 2013 Autumn Promotion

The national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines launched its annual autumn promotions yesterday for passengers in Vietnam who buy tickets from August 8-22 on both domestic and international flights.

Passengers traveling from August 19, 2013 to March 31, 2014 will be offered discounted fares from VND333,000 (US$15.9) to VND666,000 (US$31.8) for one-way tickets on domestic flights, and from US$9 to US$399 for return tickets on international flights.

The above prices exclude taxes and other additional fees. The special offers do not apply to flights during peak periods and holidays.

The 14-day promotion aims to diversify prices on all Vietnam Airline routes, encourage passengers to book flights in advance, and provide more options for travelling by air.

Foreign arrivals defy economic woes

About 660,000 international tourists visited Viet Nam last month, up 16 per cent month-on month and 28.5 per cent against the same month last year, according to the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT).

The latest addition has brought the total number of foreign visitors in the past seven months to nearly 4.2 million, a yearly increase of 5.9 per cent, VNAT said.

More than 3.36 million arrived by air, up 3.8 per cent year on year, while over 139,000 arrived by sea (down 2.7 per cent) and 594,000 by land (up 20 per cent).

More than 2.5 million arrivals came to Viet Nam as tourists, while the number of foreigners arriving for business and visiting relatives was 702,000 and 699,600, respectively.

They mainly came from China (up 29.2 per cent), South Korea (4.3 per cent), Japan (2.9 per cent), Australia (12.7 per cent), Malaysia (12.1 per cent), Thailand (25.5 per cent), Russia (57.4 per cent) and the UK (4.4 per cent).

In the context of the global economic downturn, the rising number of foreign arrivals in Viet Nam was a promising sign, industry insiders have said.

The country was still an attractive destination in the eyes of investors despite its economic difficulties, VNAT general director Nguyen Van Tuan told a recent teleconference.

To further improve the tourism environment, he emphasised the importance of managing the quality of tourism products and re-organising the tourism environment.

The hospitality sector expects to receive about 7.2 million foreign visitors this year, a rise of 5.15 per cent. It will also serve about 35 million domestic tourists (a surge of 7.69 per cent).

Tough competition sends small travel firms into trouble

While big travel firms in HCMC still earn high revenues in the first few months of the year despite tougher competition, small firms are facing many difficulties with a strong revenue decline.

Nguyen Thi Khanh, vice chairwoman of the HCMC Tourism Association, said many small travel firms have plunged into difficulty. Revenues of the association’s member companies have fallen by 15-20% while there are even some having no profits.

“Firms of small scale are encountering more and more difficulties. Competition on the travel market, especially the domestic one, is getting fiercer,” she said.

According to the association, the six-month reports of some travel firms indicated that the number of tourist groups buying domestic tours dropped by 20% while that of individual tourists tumbled by 40%.

The director of a small travel firm based in District 1 said that in addition to brand and capital sources, price competition was also a headache to small firms like his.

“Most promotion programs offered by service suppliers and airlines are directed at travel firms that have a high number of tourists. Big promotions will help lower tour prices, which is what we do not have,” he said.

To increase revenues, this company is striving to attract customers with low spending by offering short tours of low prices even though the profit earned from each customer is very low.

“The chance is still there for us as large travel firms have yet to pay attention to this type of customers. The profit is low but the number of customers is high. Amid difficulties we have to find any way out possible,” he added.

According to Khanh, the association is coordinating with Vietnam Airlines and VietJetAir to provide discounted air tickets for travel firms selling packaged tours. However, small firms will have fewer chances to access such promotion packages.

“More difficulties are still awaiting small firms, especially in the midst of tough price competition like now. Many firms are willing to lower prices to win bids of organizing tours for customers but not all can have the lowest price to offer,” she said.

Source: SGT/SGGP/VNA/VNS/VOV/ND