Travel in brief 20 Jan 2010

Five more luxury hotels for Ha Noi
Five new hotels, including four five-star facilities, are expected to open in Ha Noi this year as the capital city is preparing for its millennium anniversary in October. The new hotels, including the Ha Noi Plaza, Keangnam Vina and Crowne Plaza Ha Noi, will add another 2,000 rooms to the city’s supply.
The city has now 213 hotels with a total of 9,968 rooms. Due to the impact of the global economic downturn, the hotel average occupancy rate dropped 21.7 per cent last year to only 55.4 per cent.
Pilgrimage tours organised for Tet
The HCM City-based Ben Thanh Tourist has launched two special tours to meet customers’ rising demand for pilgrimage trips during Tet.
For travellers from southern provinces, Ben Thanh has introduced a four-day tour of Ha Noi, Quang Ninh and Ninh Binh which will fall in mid-February.
The tour will take tourists to beautiful landscapes, historical relics and pagodas in Yen Tu, Quang Ninh, and to the 100-tonne bronze statue of Buddha, stone Arhat statues and ancient pagodas in Ninh Binh Province. The tours starts every Thursday and will also take travellers to Tam Coc-Bich Dong in Ninh Binh and other tourist sites in Ha Noi. The tour costs VND6.6 million (US$355) per guest.
Another two-day tour will take travellers from the southern provinces to Vinh Trang Pagoda in Tien Giang Province, the Temple of the Goddess Ba Chua Xu at the foot of Sam Mountain in Chau Doc Town, An Giang Province. The tour will start on February 27 and March 6, and will charge VND930 ($50) per guest.
Tourist balloon goes on test run
A balloon that would fly tourists over Nha Trang is being tested in the coastal city in Khanh Hoa Province, and is scheduled to begin operation on February 2. From on board the US$1.7 million balloon, which can carry 30 passengers per 20-minute flight, tourists can get an aerial view of Nha Trang and one of the world’s most beautiful bays.
Tickets for Da Nang fireworks fest
Tickets for the International Fireworks Competition 2010, organised by Da Nang City and VietArt JSC, are being sold to the price for VND200,000 (US$11). The organisers said 18,000 of the 30,000 tickets for the stadium on the east side of the Han River had been sold.
With the theme of The Legend of the Han River, the competition has attracted teams from France, Japan, Portugal, the US and Da Nang. In addition to the fireworks competition on the nights of March 27 and 28, the city authorities will organise a parade of flower boats, flower garlands and coloured lanterns on the river.
Philippines seeks VN visitors
The Philippine Department of Tourism is working with its partners over a campaign called Hello Philippines which aims to promote the country’s tourism in the emerging Vietnamese market.
Miriam Melgar, who represents Philippine tourism in Viet Nam, said Manila and Cebu would be among the destinations advertised in the country under the campaign targeting both travellers as well as students from Viet Nam. According to the department’s figures, the number of Vietnamese arrivals in the Philippines rose from 6,475 in 2004 to 13,675 out of the over 3.1 million international visitors in 2008.