Travel in brief on 20th Feb 09

     Ha Long Bay moves up the ranks
As of February 15 Ha Long Bay ranked third among the 25 World Heritage sites in category G in the second round of the campaign to nominate the new Natural Wonders of the World, according to the organisers.
It is below the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and Papua New Guinea and Cox’s Bazaar beach in Bangladesh.
In the second round, Newopenworld divided the 261 nominees chosen in the first round into seven categories – from A to G – corresponding to seven types of landscapes – scenery; islands and archipelagos; mountains and volcanoes; caves, stone structures and valleys; forests and national parks, natural conservation sites; lakes, rivers and waterfalls and beaches.
VN promotional festival hits Paris
Vietnam Airlines, together with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Vietnamese Embassy in France, will hold a promotional event called the Viet Nam Sea Festival in the French capital Paris on April 28-29.
The festival, which will showcase 30 top tourist attractions in Viet Nam, will seek to market the country to European visitors.
The national flag carrier will co-ordinate with French and Vietnamese tourist companies to organise two special promotional programmes for French tourists visiting Viet Nam from April 21 to June 19 and August 21 to October 20, offering a 25 per cent reduction in prices.
Ha Long set for cultural carnival
Ha Long town will host a carnival from April 25 to May 2 featuring floating stages and fireworks displays. The opening ceremony to be held at the Bai Chay ferry will feature festivities on and above the sea and will be called "Ha Long, a World Cultural Heritage Rendezvous."
The carnival will also feature a food festival with northern and north-eastern dishes, performances by domestic and international artists, sports competitions and business fairs.
Classical drama wows tourists
The Nguyen Hien Dinh Opera House in Da Nang is a popular venue for short traditional tuong (classical drama) pieces and performances showcasing cultural aspects of the central region and renewed stage plays.
So far this year it has been filled with colourful bonnets and gowns and outstanding performances by some keen artists.
The director of the theatre, Tran Dinh Sanh, said it has hosted five shows for foreign tourists, each lasting 30 to 40 minutes, featuring traditional dances and ethnic musical concerts and Cham ethnic songs and dramas.
The performances have wowed Korean, Japanese and European visitors, he said.
Readers name best brands
Vinh Suong and Sea Horse resorts in Phan Thiet are among 42 enterprises that received the "2008-2009 Viet Nam Brands" award from Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated Sai Gon) newspaper.
The annual awards are determined by votes from the newspaper’s customers and readers. This year the voting took place in the newspaper’s tourism-discovery section from September last year through January, with 7,862 readers sending in their votes.
Air Asia launches online check-in
Travellers including those in Viet Nam can make use of AirAsia’s latest online self check-in facility from Tuesday.
With the new innovation, air travellers can now save time and avoid long queues at the airport by using the free internet check-in facility implemented across AirAsia and AirAsia X’s entire network.
"This is a wonderful innovation. With AirAsia’s web check-in, I can perform check-in myself in the office," said AirAsia passenger Janice Kuek.
"I do not have to worry about long queues at the counters anymore. It allows me to plan my trip better and saves me a lot of time, and it minimises chances of missing my flight."
For more information, visit website www.airasia.com .