Posted by admin on January 17, 2011 under Vietnam Visa, Vietnam travel News | 
2010 was a great year for Vietnam’s tourism industry, with an estimated 5 million visitors – the best ever. Here are my hopes for 2011…
1. Visa on arrival
I know I bang on about this incessantly but there is little point marketing Vietnam as a tourist destination and then making it difficult for people to actually get in. Introducing a genuine Vietnam visa on arrival process, and scrapping visas for key markets altogether, would see a huge leap in numbers for both new and returning visitors.
2. Taxi clampdown
Whilst the customs & immigration staff have improved greatly this year, the taxi situation at Tan Son Nhat Airport remains an embarrassment. Tourists, expats and locals are ripped off and mistreated every minute of every day by unscrupulous, seemingly untouchable taxi drivers. Clamping down on the cheats and setting up an organised queuing system would create a much better first impression for visitors.
3. More awareness of the benefits of tourism
Too many workers in the tourism sector see tourists as a one-off deal – they think tourists will only come once, so they try and squeeze them for all they can, and thus a self-fulfilling prophecy ensues. Creating more awareness of the benefits of repeat visits and word-of-mouth marketing will ensure a better environment for tourists and better long-term income for all in the tourism industry.
4. Better care for monuments and historic buildings
Vietnam’s ancient monuments are often in a pretty sorry state – poorly maintained, not signposted, shabby visitor facilities and hawkers allowed to hassle tourists with apparent impunity. And in the cities, fine colonial buildings are being destroyed on a weekly basis. Better preservation of these historic and cultural vestiges (just hop over the border to Cambodia to see how it’s done) will make Vietnam more attractive to tourists.
5. More fun-based marketing
Recent tradeshows and conferences have indicated that the authorities are getting their act together on the marketing front, moving away from serious, culture-based marketing towards campaigns that actually portray Vietnam as a fun place to visit. More please.
6. More boutique hotels
We often receive requests from customers visiting Saigon and asking to stay in a boutique hotel, but the sad reality is, there aren’t any. The insane price of land combined with the egotism of hotel owners and an obsession with corporate travellers means each new hotel is bigger and shinier than the last, with no-one interested in creating something small, intimate and different.
7. Traffic-free days
Traffic, Nguyen Thai Hoc
Indonesia’s capital Jakarta introduced traffic-free days on Sundays recently, leaving the streets free for families and tourists to walk, run and cycle in fresh air. The result – more people wandering the streets on a Sunday and a more pleasant environment. For one day a week at least it would be wonderful to see the streets of Saigon & Hanoi bereft of motorised vehicles, and even better, no honking!
8. Nightlife encouraged, not discouraged
A common gripe amongst tourists is that there is nothing to do in Vietnam at night, and whilst those of us who live in Saigon know where to go when we want a big night out, its pleasures are not obvious to visitors. Encourage entertainment districts, allow bars to open after midnight, and view bars/clubs as drivers of revenue and tourism rather than ‘social evils’, and Vietnam’s reputation will improve.
Those are my wishes for 2011 – what changes would you like to see in Vietnam’s tourism industry?
(Source: comeandgovietnam.com)
Posted by admin on January 8, 2011 under Vietnam Travel Guide, Vietnam Visa, Vietnam travel News |
Many tourism promotion trips to foreign countries made in 2010 and careful preparations for Vietnam’s national tourism year in 2011 are aimed at not only attracting more tourists next year but also improving the country’s tourism quality.
The HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in cooperation with Viet Circle tour operator, American Tour International and American Airlines, organized a tourism promotion trip for 14 tour operators in the U.S. from November 28 to December 12, 2010. According to Phan Dinh Hue, Viet Circle’s director, besides studying tourism destinations in the country’s western and eastern coasts, the enterprises had meetings with partners there to bring more American tourists to Vietnam and vice versa.
Previously, on November 22, 2010, the Vietnamese Embassy in Egypt held a seminar to introduce Vietnam’s travel agencies and tours to Egyptian travel agencies, tourists and journalists. In addition to a short film show on Halong Bay, Phong Nha-Ke Bang, Sapa, Dalat and beautiful beaches, there was an explanation on how to apply for a Vietnam visa.
Promoting by fam trips
These were the last fam trips to promote Vietnam’s tourism in foreign countries to attract more tourists in 2011.
Nguyen Manh Cuong, Deputy Director General of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), says that over 10 tourism promotion trips were made in 2010. “It is common that after such trips, it takes some five or six months to actually have first contracts between Vietnamese travel agencies and foreign partners to bring tourists to Vietnam or vice versa,” he says, giving an example that many trips held in 2009 partly help Vietnam’s tourism fulfilling target of attracting foreign tourists to Vietnam in 2010.
Among the campaigns organized in 2010, the largest one was possibly from the tourism promotion program in late August and early September in Western Europe — the key market for the Vietnamese tourism industry — held by VNAT. In combination with the “Vietnam Cultural Weeks” in Germany and Belgium, VNAT introduced the Vietnamese tourism in Germany, Belgium and France. This was an opportunity for Vietnamese tourism businesses to meet, discuss and seek business partners and meet overseas Vietnamese to exchange tourism cooperation opportunities in Vietnam.
At the beginning of 2010, VNAT had invited some companies to participate in the bids to hold a series of events abroad, including tourism promotion campaigns and meetings between state and corporate officials of Vietnam and their partners from Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.
National Tourism Year
Mr Cuong said that the fam trips in 2010 were successful, supporting the country’s tourism campaign in 2011 that focuses on sea tourism. This is the reason why the National Tourism Year 2011 will take place in the central coastal region, mainly in Phu Yen Province, themed “Exotic Beaches and Islands.” The previous hosts of the program were Quang Ninh, Dien Bien, Nghe An, Quang Nam, Thai Nguyen, Can Tho and Hanoi. According to VNAT, it had a trip to the central region from December 3 to 10, 2010 to look into infrastructure, products and services for the upcoming program.
Previously in July, Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism Hoang Tuan Anh signed a decision to approve programs for the tourism year. Accordingly, the opening ceremony will officially start early 2011, including activities such as International Mountaineering Prize for conquering Da Bia Mountain, cultural exchanges among Vietnam, Korea and some other countries, ASEAN traditional music, ASEAN Choir Games and the 17th Vietnam Film Festival 2011.
Additionally, during the year, there are many activities like Quan The Am Festival (Avalokitecvara Festival) and International Fireworks Competition in Danang City, the first international chorus festival and sports competition of ethnic minorities in Quang Nam Province, the tourism beauty contest and sea and island culture festival in Quang Ngai Province, Bai Choi folk-song festival in Binh Dinh Province and Vietnam sea village festival in Binh Thuan Province.
Mr Cuong says that with the main purpose to promote sea tourism in 2011, VNAT will strengthen cooperation with enterprises, especially those coming back from tourism promotion trips to organize the National Tourism Year more effectively in order to either attract new foreign arrivals to Vietnam or welcome return visitors.
Source: SGT
Posted by admin on March 8, 2009 under Attractions, Vietnam Travel Guide, Vietnam Visa |
The Bai Dinh Pagoda in northern Viet Nam’s Ninh Binh province promises to be the largest pagoda. Even though it is still under construction, with expected date of completion in 2010 to mark the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long or Hanoi, it is still attracting a large number of pilgrims and tourists.
Located in Gia Sinh Commune, Gia Vien District, the half-finished pagoda is already receiving flocks of visitors daily despite being surrounded by scaffoldings and 500 masons working around the clock.
One of its temples is to house a 100-ton statue of the Great Buddha which is the heaviest of its kind in Southeast Asia while the other will feature three 50-ton Buddha statues.
The four were cast from Russian-made copper by renowned artists from Nam Dinh province.
The pagoda will also be home to two large bronze bells 27 ton and 36 tons, designed by famous artisans in Hue City.
The former was brought to the construction site two years ago and has sat on a hilltop ever since while the other, 36 tons and 5.4m high, is the biggest bronze bell in Southeast Asia.
On another hill sit around 200 statues of arhats or la han saints two meters tall. A further 300 are expected to come by late this year.
When all are finished, this undoubtedly will make Bai Dinh Pagoda the biggest gathering of arhat statues in Southeast Asia.
Other prominent features of the pagoda are two giant temples by the side of the Bai Dinh Mountain, 200m high.
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