Vietnam Travel News

The Museum of Sa Huynh – Champa Culture has opened for visitors in Tra Kieu, Duy Son commune, Duy Xuyen district, in the central province of Quang Nam after one year of construction.

In the final weeks before New Year 2010 and the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi, many travel agencies have prepared tours emphasizing cultural events and landscapes of the North.

Direct service between China’s Taipei and Da Nang, Vietnam will begin December 26, according to a representative from the route operator, Taiwan-based TransAsia Airways.

Hanoi is holding a floral festival, only the second of its kind, on the streets around Hoan Kiem Lake (Sword Lake) in the centre of the capital from December 30, 2009, to January 1, 2010, which will turn the area into a gigantic flower basket.

 The Vietnam Cooperative Alliance (VCA) held a talk on solutions to develop cooperatives and traditional craft villages, in Hanoi on December 3, within the framework of an international fair on cooperatives and SMEs.

Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, pinning high hopes on the development of the country’s tourism industry, targets to triple its revenue to around US$10-11 billion by the year 2015.

Taiwanese airlines TransAsia has said it would resume direct flights to Da Nang on December 26, four years after they were withdrawn.

The Que Huong-Liberty Group will have its current 86-room three-star Metropole Hotel in downtown HCMC demolished next year to leave place for the four-star hotel Novotel Saigon Center.

The HCM City Railway Station on December 1 launched its train booking service via SMS in a bid to save time for passengere.

A lack of concerted efforts and a poorly-funded infrastructure have hindered development of Vietnam’s waterway tourism despite the country’s great potential, officials and entrepreneurs said here last Friday.

Ninh Binh attracted over 2 million visitors, 27,000 from overseas, in the first 11 months of 2009, according to the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

A series of international fairs opened on December 2 to boost trade relations between Vietnamese businesses and their foreign partners as well as to promote the tourism industry in countries in the Mekong region and Japan.

The Viet Nam National Commission for UNESCO on Nov. 30 submitted two separate files of stone steles at the Ha Noi Temple of Literature (Van Mieu-Quoc Tu Giam) and the Dong Van Stone Plateau to the United Nations World Heritage Center (UNESCO) for recognition as cultural and geological heritages.

The Nam Hai Resort in the central province of Quang Nam picked up the Quality Award by the Leading Hotels of the World at the prestigious hospitality organisation’s 8th Annual International Convention in Venice, Italy, in November.