In his address to the conference,Vietnam National Tourism Administration chairman Nguyen Van Tuan called for the establishment of Vietnamese tourism representative offices in Japan, South Korea and Russia.

Such a move would promote the industry in some of Vietnam’s key partner markets, said Tuan, who also called for further co-operation with important partners Japan, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia and France.

He reported to the conference on the marketing initiatives since the year 2000 and submitted a strategy for tourism development until 2020, which he said would be a long and challenging process requiring a methodical strategy.

He said that important long-term initiatives included joining tourism fairs, organising culture-tourism weeks and inviting foreign travel agents and media to Vietnam.

“In my opinion, Vietnamese tourism is integrating with the region and the world and we should promote it professionally,” Tuan said.

“We can no longer be vague when advertising Vietnam. We need to focus on our strengths and sufficiently implement all stages of marketing and promotion, including market research, advertising and building a brand name.

“As a seller, we need to be proactive. In addition to showing customers what we can offer, we also need to introduce them clearly to the product and offer them special deals if necessary.”

He pointed out some advantages created in the development of Vietnamese tourism thanks to the support of international partners. These include a project with Luxembourg in developing human resources, a Spanish project for the empowerment for Vietnamese tourism in the period 2011-20, and the European Union (EU)’s Environmentally and Socially Responsible Tourism (ESRT) Programme.

Franz Jessen, head of the EU delegation, at the conference praised the partnership between the EU and Vietnam in the last 10 years.

He said tourism was one of the fastest growing and most crucial sectors in the world, and contributed substantially to Vietnam’s growth and job creation. However, he warned that some key challenges are putting the potential of the sector at risk.

“International tourist numbers are going down, and the competition from neighbours is fierce,” he said. “Marketing is one of these key areas where improvements are needed. If there is one single message on tourism marketing I would like to convey, it’s that it needs funding,” he said.

Jessen said that the spending on marketing per every arrival in Vietnam is around 1 euro (US$1.3) per year, three times less than Malaysia.

“Through the ESRT we have facilitated the development of a Tourism Advisory Board, bringing together some of Vietnam’s representatives from the tourism private sector to help provide advice and guidance on the development of tourism in Vietnam,” he said.

“I truly hope that the work and resources we have invested through the ESRT can become a building block to market Vietnam as an attractive tourist destination in the future. From a European perspective, I know that Vietnam represents great potential.”

Participants at the conference included representatives from the national and local government, travel companies and international tourism organisations.

Representatives of tourism departments from around the country shared their experiences in promoting tourism in their localities.

Nguyen Xuan Binh, director of Da Nang City’s Tourism Promotion Centre, expressed his ambition to build up a brand name for Da Nang as a city of events.

“We have had some success in promoting tourism through organising international events. For example, now when talking about firework competitions, people immediately think of Da Nang,” he said. “Through our events we have introduced tourists to an image of a beautiful, friendly and peaceful city.”

Similar conferences will be organised in other big cities to canvas more opinions from leaders and experts in the tourism industry.

This was part of Vietnam Airlines’ activities to celebrate the 26th Korea World Travel Fair (KWTF) and the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Among participants were Vietnamese Ambassador to the RoK Tran Trong Toan, Minister Counselor Nguyen Manh Dong, representatives from the Korea Tourism Association, and other partners of Vietnam Airlines.

Cao Anh Son, a representative of Vietnam Airlines in the RoK, said the first direct flight is scheduled for July 1.

The airline will operate three flights a week, using Airbus A321 (16C and 168Y) on Monday, Thursday and Saturday.

Passengers can also book domestic connecting flights to Nha Trang, Phu Quoc, Da Lat, and Buon Me Thuot, Son added.

The Ministry of Culture, Information and Tourism, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade will cooperate with local authorities, relevant departments and tourist enterprises to promote tourism in 2013.

On this occasion, the Vietnamese tourism industry has launched a website presenting ‘Tourism Promotion Program 2013’ via www.timelesscharm.vn in Vietnamese and English.

Travel companies, restaurants, hotels and other services can introduce their products on the website free of charge.

The national tourism industry expects to receive 7.2 million international visitors and 35 million domestic tourists this year.

According to the Vietnam Government Portal (VGP), this list made by Robb Report was published early this month, based on the evaluation by highly experienced editors, tourism reporters, tourism collaborators and experts in field of luxury hotel industry.

Trip Advisor (the US), the world famous tourism magazine, has published the list of 25 world’s best hotels in 2013.

Among them, An Lam resort in An Lam-Ninh Van bay villas ranked 14th in this list. In the list of 25 Asia’s best hotels and resorts, An Lam-Ninh Van bay villas ranked 6th.

An Lam-Ninh Van bay villas is high quality five-star resort located in Ninh Van commune, Ninh Hoa district, central Khanh Hoa province, which is built as a private resort imbued with Vietnamese style.

However, the tour fee reduction proves to be ineffective any longer. Despite the repeated tourism promotion campaigns, Vietnamese still keep indifferent to domestic tours.

Travel firms, which have realized where the problem is, have advertised a lot of a new destination points for the April holiday. Memento tourist site, I-resort hot spring in the sea city of Nha Trang have been put into operation.

The travelers to Da Lat City would be brought to the Cu Lan village, far from the city, called a hidden location, therefore, which travel firms rarely brought tourists to in the past.

In the south, the Cao Minh tourist site, developed by singer Cao Minh in Dong Nai province, has attracted the attention of travel firms. The tourist site was initially set up by the singer as a farm where his family members could spend time on weekend. However, Minh has later developed it into a famous tourist site with modern facilities and amusement services.

A senior executive of Lua Viet travel firm said discovering new destinations and designing new tours has been on the firm’s focus. Lua Viet tends to develop the tours to the central region this year, because it believes that there are great potentials which have not been awaken by travel firms.

Small travel firms have also been trying to renew their tours or renovating the itineraries to make the tours more attractive in the eyes of tourists. Nguyen Ngoc Thu from Bi Tour said she has decided to launch “humanitarian tours.”

In general, tours would become uninspiring after some years of exploitation; therefore, redesigning tours is a must for travel firms.

“Going traveling and making new friends, planting trees or discovering new places could be the ideas which may catch the travelers’ interests,” Thu said.

Bi Tour has organized many humanitarian tours targeting different groups of clients, from families, friends and singles who have the demand to make friends. In general, offline meetings would be held right before every tour, where clients meet each other with the participation of psychological experts.

Not only travel firms, local authorities themselves have also been trying to open new tourism routes as well. Da Nang City, for example, has developed a new tour to Son Tra peninsula. It has built two floating huts in the Bai Nom area to serve the travelers who like fishing.

In Da Lat City, the tours to highland craft villages have been introduced. Besides, tourists can also visit high technology agricultural production areas in the city, relax at the Dam Rong hot spring, or join the adventure tours to the Cat Tien National Park.

Truong Hoang Phuong, MA, Product and Marketing Director of Vietmark, said Vietmark has decided to renew the short distance tours to Tien Giang, Dong Nai and Da Lat.

The names seem to be too familiar to many travelers, but they would still find it interesting to go there under the renewed tours.

Source: PL TPHCM

Director of Da Nang Culture, Sports and Tourism Department Ngo Quang Vinh said at a recent meting that the city plans to provide 36,000 tickets with prices ranging between VND250,000 and 400,000 (US$12-19) for two nights of the competition on April 29-30.

Vinh also said the city has secured VND22 billion (US$1.1 million) in sponsorship.

The event organising committee will organise street music performances, cuisine festivals and display national relics to promote the competition.

The competition’s jury will include Vietnamese artists, musicians and foreign diplomats.

Last year, the Parente fireworks team from Italy won the competition – the second time in a row – with their colourful performance entitled The Rainbow of Da Nang.

According to the plan, three geo-scientific, geo-ecological and geo-cultural theme parks and four tourism centres will be built with the involvement of native people, aiming to preserve and promote heritage values of the plateau.

In his speech at the ceremony, Deputy PM Nhan praised the Ha Giang authorities and relevant agencies for working out the master plan for the stone plateau, saying it will be a turning point for boosting socio-economic development and alleviating poverty in the locality.

He also stressed that the completed master plan is an important legal foundation for upholding and managing the global geopark and promoting heritage values and socio-economic development in this region.

The Deputy PM called on Ha Giang authorities to quickly disseminate the plan to local people and across the country, and implement its details in the most efficient way.

Last October, the Dong Van Stone Plateau was recognised as the first geopark in Vietnam and the second in Southeast Asia (after the Langkawi Geological Park in Malaysia) by the Global Network of National Geoparks (GGN).

The plateau is over 80% limestone and contains fossils of thousands of animal species from 400-600 million years ago.

Source: Nhandan online

The house was built in the old style, consisting of three compartments and two lean-tos, yin-yang tile roofed. This is one of the rare remaining old houses left in Da Nang.

To have enough material to build the house, the owner had to spend three years to collect jackfruit wood from Hue and Quang Nam. The construction also took three years.

After 200 years, the altar, the pillars, etc. which were made from jackfruit wood and carved by artisans from the famous traditional carpentry village of Kim Bong (Hoi An, Quang Nam) are now in shining dark brown.

Close to the walls are some glass cabinets containing old objects that are used in the daily life such as dishes, kettles, etc. On the wall are clay pots, bronze trays, etc, which are collected by the house owner.

In front of the house is a lake with ornamental trees to separate the house with the vast courtyard.

Conserving an ancient house like Tich Thien Duong is not easy. The house of over 200 years old has experienced many ups and downs and was also harmed by war and natural disasters, including floods. The house was repaired for several times.

If Lotte had succeeded with the deal of buying Daewoo Hotel in 2012, it would have had two adjacent hotels in the golden land area in Ba Dinh district in the capital city.

At that time, when a lot of foreign investors had to narrow their portfolio investments in Vietnam, Lotte stated it was ready to spend more than $100 million to buy stakes from Daewoo group, which was double the sum of money Hanel, the Vietnamese partner in the Daewoo hotel joint venture, paid initially.

This, in the eyes of analysts, showed the powerful financial capability of Lotte and its strong determination to conquer the high-end hotel market in Vietnam.

The failure in the Daewoo hotel case could not make Lotte give up its determination. Local newspapers have recently reported that Legend Hotel on Ton Duc Thang Street in district 1 of HCM City has changed hands, turning into Lotte Hotel.

The 5-star hotel, licensed in December 1993, has been developed by Hai Thanh Kotobuki, a joint name of Vietnamese and Japanese partners. The hotel has the investment capital of $80 million, 17 stories, 238 rooms, swimming pool and restaurant.

However, no official statement has been made by the involved parties. Prior to that, in the fourth quarter of 2012, VOF, an investment fund of VinaCapital Group, announced its capital withdrawal form Legend Hotel.

VOF’s investment in Legend in March 2012 was valued at $27 million. Meanwhile, in December 2012, when it left, the IRR was reportedly at minus 5 percent.

VinaCapital has declined to make comment about the partners in the affair and talk about why VOF accepted to sell at a loss.

It also has not confirmed if it sold to Lotte. Meanwhile, sources said that Lotte Hotels & Resorts, belonging to Lotte Group, has had 70 percent of Legend’s stakes in hands which it has purchased mostly from the Japanese partner.

South Korean newspapers on March 6, 2013 reported that Lottel Hotel Saigon is the second 5-star hotel that Lotte Hotels & Resorts has invested and has been managing, after Lotte Hotel Moscow.

Lotte, one of the biggest South Korean conglomerates, is considering buying the remaining 30 percent of stakes from the Vietnamese partner – Hai Thanh Company – to be able to fully own Legend Hotel.

According to Korea Herald, the three hotels in Vietnam would serve as the spring board for Lotte’s plan to expand its business in ASEAN countries.

Asiana Airlines, a subsidiary of Kumho Group, also a South Korean investor, has bought back 50 percent of the office – shopping mall – hotel complex in district 1, HCM City from Kumho E&C.

The project has been developed by Kumho E&C, Saigontourist and HDSC. Of the three partners, Kumho E&C holds 65 percent of stakes. The complex, with the 5-star InterContinental hotel, has always been the “aiming point” of foreign investors.

These are the routes Air Mekong has left when it has to halt the operation due to the big losses.

On the press release issued on March 26, the day the new air routes were opened, Jetstar Pacific said this was the event making the hallmark for a new development stage of the air carrier which has successfully connected with the central highlands.

General Director of Jetstar Pacific said 5,000 passengers have bought low cost air tickets on both the air routes. Of these, 2,000 passengers have luckily bought tickets at very low price of VND199,000.

In the immediate time, Jetstar Pacific plans to provide 5 flights there and back a week between HCM City and Buon Ma Thuot, and 3 between Buon Ma Thuot and Vinh City.

Just two days later, on March 28, Vietjet Air kicked off the sale of the air tickets for the flights between HCM City and Buon Ma Thuot. Those lucky passengers can buy tickets at the preferential level of VND390,000.

The air carrier plans to open the air route on May 20, from which 7 flights a week in the first stage of development.

The HCM City – Buon Ma Thuot route was once developed very successfully by Air Mekong. This explains why Vietjet Air and Jetstar Pacific have decided to jump on the bandwagon to scramble for the attractive “piece of cake” as soon as Air Mekong left the market.

Meanwhile, experts have expressed their worry about the overly stiff competition among air carrier on the small domestic market. A representative of an airline has noted that while there are more service providers, the number of passengers remains unchanged.

This would force the airlines to compete fiercely with each other, while the battle would bring big difficulties to both of them.

In an effort to increase its competitiveness, Jetstar Pacific has decided to join forces with Vietnam Airlines (both Jetstar Pacific and Vietnam Airlines now exploit the air routes to Buon Ma Thuot) to implement a program allowing to change the flight schedule. Under the program, if there are some changes in the flight schedule, passengers would be allowed to shift to take the flights with Vietnam Airlines or Jetstar Pacific.

Both Jetstar Pacific and Vietjet Air are budget airlines, but they seemed to be different in business performance.

The report of the Ministry of Transport has shown bad figures about the former’s operation. In 2012, the accumulative loss of the air carrier reached VND2,476 billion.

Prior to that, the Prime Minister decided to put the airline under the management of Vietnam Airlines Corporation after the airline incurred big losses in the last many consecutive years, despite the big efforts to restructure it.

Meanwhile, Desmond Lin, a senior executive of Vietjet Air, said the airline’s turnover was higher by 20 percent than the targeted level, an encouraging result for such a fledgling airline. It hopes to begin making profit right in 2013.