VietNamNet Bridge – The Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism will set up two hotlines and an office to receive information about fraud and overcharging against tourists.

The department’s Deputy Director – Mr. Mai Tien Dung – has reported to the Hanoi People's Committee the plans to protect local and foreign tourists against fraud and overcharging in the city. Accordingly, the agency will establish an information bureau to receive and handle complaints of tourists.

The department will also set up two hotlines, which is open 24/7, to serve tourists. The officers in charge of the hotlines will receive complaints of visitors and quickly coordinate with the relevant authorities to solve them.

According to the Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, although the local authorities have tried to control tourism-related services at tourist sites but negative phenomena such as overcharging and fraud have not been handled.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism recently asked all provinces and cities to strengthen security and safety for visitors, including the establishment of a hotline to receive information and complaints of visitors.

Souce: Google.com

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Market survey firms, which believe that more and more high income tourists would come to Hanoi, have all predicted that more 5-star hotels would be available in the city by 2015.

Dau tu has quoted the report of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) as saying that 1.8 million foreign travelers came to Vietnam in the first 3 months of the year, a decrease of 6.2 percent in comparison with the same period of the last year.

Meanwhile, according to CBRE, a real estate service provider, 425,000 foreign tourists came to Hanoi during that time, up by 18.9 percent over the same period of the last year.

The increase in the number of tourists to the capital city has brought benefits to local hotels in the context of the economic recession and less spending on tourism. The hotel occupancy rate has increased slightly by 0.65 percentage points to 58 percent.

However, the occupancy rates varied for different market segments. While 5-star hotel room occupancy rate increased by 1.29 percentage points to 61 percent, the ratio of 4-star hotels decreased by 1 percentage points to 52 percent.

The 5-star occupancy rate improvement has been attributed to the 4.8 percent room rate decrease, now hovering around $103 per night. Meanwhile, the hotel room rates of 4-star and 3-star hotels decreased by 4.16 percent and 0.74 percent, respectively to $62.3 and $34.47. This has led to the increase of the RevPar (revenue per available room) of 3-star hotels and the decrease of the index for 4-5 star hotels.

According to Savills, also a real estate consultancy firm, Hanoi had 7,750 hotel rooms from 53 hotels in the first quarter of 2013. The three hotels Golden Silk Boutique, Lan Vien and Tan Da Spa & Resort have just been recognized as 3-star hotels. The average revenue per room available was VND930,000 in the first quarter, down by 5 percent in comparison with the quarter before, but up by 2 percent if compared with the same period of the last year.

The yearly occupancy rate remains unchanged at 57 percent, while the hotel room rate was VND1.64 million per room per night on average, a slight increase of 0.2 percent over the quarter before and 2.4 percent over the same period of the last year.

In general, the Hanoi’s hotel market remains stable, while there have been signs showing the increase in the hotel room supply and the upgrading in the quality to better satisfy the market demand.

Commenting about the Hanoi’s hotel market in the near future, Do Thu Hang from Savills said 5-star hotels would dominate the market by 2015.

According to Hang, 8 hotel projects would provide 1,400 more hotel rooms to the market in 2013. Many hotels would be managed by international firms like Intercontinental, Marriott, Hilton Hotels & Resorts and Candeo.

It is expected that by 2015, the Hanoi market would have 1,765 rooms from the 10 out of the 13 new projects, of which 5-star hotel rooms would account for 54 percent.

Richard Leech from CBRE believes that the demand in Hanoi does not change heavily like other markets thanks to the regularly organized conferences, exhibitions and other entertainment activities.

According to the International Air Transport Association, Vietnam would become the third fastest growing cargo and passenger transport market in the world. This has given more reason to investors to pour money into high end hotels.

Souce: Google.com

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An increasing number of Russian visitors are selecting Vietnam’s famous tourist attractions in the central region as ideal destinations for this year’s holiday season.

More Russian visitors prefer travelling to Vietnam’s central region for the holiday season. (Photo: TTO)

These days, pubs, restaurants and other recreational centres in BinhThuan Province’s Mui Ne resort are crowded with Russian tourists enjoying their holidays on the occasion of Vietnam’s V-day celebrations.

According to the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, more than 130,550 Russian tourists arrived in the province last year, making up 36.7 percent of the total number of foreign visitors to the locality.

Meanwhile, many restaurants and shops in Khanh Hoa Province’s Nha Trang City are advertising their products and services in the Russian language.

AndreyMolorov, a Russian visitor, says he is interested in beautiful beaches and nice weather condition in Vietnam’s central region. “If I have another chance to visit Vietnam again, I will come back to Nha Trang City to enjoy many specialties that cannot be found anywhere else in the world,” he says.

Alexandre, another tourist from Russia, expresses his pleasure at tasty food, saying that tourism services in Mui Ne are good and cheap.

Ton That Hung from Coco Café tour operator says nearly 30 percent of his customers come from Russia. After visiting Mui Ne, many Russian tourists continue their trip to NhaTrang City and the romantic Central Highland resort of Da Lat.

Tran Anh Thi, executive director of Seahorse hotel, says about 45 percent of his guests are Russian tourists who are keen on beach tours.

The Khanh Hoa provincial Department for Culture, Sports and Tourism reports Russian tourists top the list of international visitors to Nha Trang, with nearly 100,000 Russians visiting the city in 2012.

To meet the increasing demand from Russian visitors, the national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines has launched a direct air route from Moscow to Nha Trang, operating two flights a week.

NhaTrang-based Anh Duong tour operator is cooperating with Pegas Touristik travel agent to open 19 direct air routes connecting Nha Trang to 22 cities in Russia.

Le Van Nghia, a representative of Russia’s Transaero Airlines in Vietnam, says his firm has decided to conduct three flights a week from Moscow to HCM City right this summer.

The Vietnam Tourism Administration (VNAT) statistics show Russia was among Vietnam’s top ten markets last year. The first four months of this year saw a year-on-year increase of 50 percent in Russian arrivals to Vietnam.

Experts suggest Vietnam should tap its huge potential, especially beautiful beaches, for tourism development to attract more foreign visitors, including those from Russia, each year.

Apart from increasing tourism products and services, they say, Vietnamese tour guides should improve their Russian language to serve Russian-speaking tourists in the future.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has agreed to allocate VND6.3 billion to Khanh Hoa to train local students and tour guides in Russian.

Source: VOV

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Visiting Bình Thuan province, you should visit Co Thach tourist area, which is famous for the Hang temple, wild nature and the seven-color stone bank.

Co Thach Beach is located in a quiet place in Binh Thanh Commune, Tuy Phong District, Binh Thuan Province, about 90km from Phan Thiet City.Like other beaches of Bình Thuận, Co Thach sea is blue, limpid with quite strong waves. The most special thing of this beach is a bank of seven-color stones. The characteristics of this stone ground is due to the impact of tide, sea currents, sea water … stones of different sizes and different colors are push from the sea to the shore.

This rocky bank had been formed for hundreds of years, with a length of about 0.9 km and a width of 200-300m and a stone reserve of 243,900m3. The original shapes and colors of stone here attract the eyes of visitors. Under the waves and sunlight, the stone bank shines and stones look like jewels.Co Thach is also attractive to visitors by its huge rocks, which are attached to many legends. The rock bank is surrounded by a wild yellow sand bank named Bai Tien. According to legend, this place was the “resort” of fairies. Near the beach is the Hang (Cave) Pagoda.

(Souce: vietnamnet.vn )

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The Tourism Week will cover a wide array of cultural, tourism, and sporting activities, including art perfomances and a food festival.

The 2012 Ha Long – Quang Ninh Tourism Week will be held from April 22 to May 2, announced Quang Ninh Provincial People’s Committee on April 3.

The Tourism Week will cover a wide array of cultural, tourism, and sporting activities, including art perfomances and a food festival, as well as Tuan Chau International women’s beach volleyball, national beach sepak takraw and national dance championships. All of activities will combine traditional and modern styles.

Two exhibitions are also scheduled to be held during the week – the first a photography exhibition and the second to showcase relics and antiques related to Ha Long Bay.

The highlight of the week will be the 2012 Ha Long Carnival at Bai Chay Tourist area in the evening of May 1. The evening will honour and promote cultural values and the tourism potential of Quang Ninh province and Ha Long Bay.

During the course of the week, Quang Ninh Provincial People’s Committee will hold a ceremony to officially announce Ha Long Bay as one of the world’s seven new wonders of nature at Bai Chay on May 1.

Suoce: Indochina Tours

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The third Coconut Festival came to an end in the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre On April 10, with hundreds of thousands of domestic and foreign visitors and local people taking part.

This year’s festival included an art installation of a coconut road, a coconut foods festival, a tour of a coconut plantation and a coconut carnival to celebrate the future of coconuts. A seminar on how to increase the value of coconut products was also held along with a beauty contest, for the title ‘ Miss Coconut Land ’.

During the event, Ben Tre People’s Committee met with several domestic and foreign organisations and businesses to promote Ben Tre coconut brand and attract more investment to the area.

During the festival, six investment projects with a total capital of 86 billion VND and 45.6 million USD were granted licences by Ben Tre provincial People’s Committee.

In addition, the province also signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) on investment cooperation for five projects, with capital of over 2,500 billion VND.

The event honoured local farmers as well as scientists, researchers and businesses, who have helped to develop the Ben Tre coconut trade mark, not only in Vietnam but also overseas.

The provinces coconut products have been exported to 50 countries and territories across the world, accounting for 25 percent of the total industrial production value in Ben Tre province and 40 percent of its export turnover.

The festival also helped to encourage trade promotion, investment, tourism and marketing in the area and Vietnam in general.

At the closing ceremony, the organisers announced three national records for products made from the coconut tree, which were recognised by Vietnam ’s Record Book.

They also presented certificates of merit and mementos to 14 businesses that produce arts and handicraft products who had won a competition during the festival to create products from the coconut tree.

Souce: Indochina Tours

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The “Ho Chi Minh City – 100 interesting things” program was introduced on May 24 by the Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper in Ho Chi Minh City.
The “Ho Chi Minh City – 100 interesting things” program was introduced on May 24 by the Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper in Ho Chi Minh City.
Mr Nguyen Van Tin, Deputy Editor-in-chief of the Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper, said that the program aims to honour tourist products to open for the tourism promotion campaign in the period of 2012-2013 in Ho Chi Minh City.
According to Mr. La Quoc Khanh, vice director of the HCM City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, this year the programme will expand its voting to include 20 categories, but narrow the number of candidates of each category from 10 to 5 in order to improve the quality of the vote.
The candidates participating in the program have committed to continue to create and maintain attractive, quality services and products with the tourism sector in advertising and promoting the image of the city.
100 interesting things will be chosen among 150 candidates from June 2012 in a vote to last about 45 days. The public can vote in two forms, by paper vote or electronic vote. The paper vote is freely delivered to the public through travel agencies. In order to choose by electronic vote, audience can directly access the website of the Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper.
In 2009, HCM City organized the first “Ho Chi Minh City – 100 interesting things” program. The HCM City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism turned the information into USB, DVD, postcards and guide-book in Vietnamese and English.
Moreover, this information was also introduced at sightseeing points, stations, airports, fairs and tourism exhibitions to boost promotion and invite tourists around the country and the world to Ho Chi Minh City.

Souce: Indochina Tours

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