Travel in brief 5/3

Viva Macau Airlines launches promotional fares to Macau
Viva Macau Airlines has announced a promotional fare for Premium Class tickets for travel between Ha Noi/HCM City and Macau. The promotion offers Viva Macau's Premium Class for US$179/$199 one-way, excluding taxes and charges each way between Ha Noi and HCM City and Macau between April 1 and October 24.
Tour operators, airline join hands for tourism promotion
Vietnam Airlines launched on Monday a promotion offering travel agencies discounted air tickets so that they can sell more package tours to domestic travellers. The incentive programme will continue until December 31 this year and the 10-month programme will be divided into several periods. Nguyen Thi Minh Yen, director of Vietnam Airlines' Southern Regional Office, said the promotion was launched after the success of the Impressive Viet Nam programme last year.
Portuguese cruise ship brings 800 tourists to Viet Nam
Saigontourist Travel Service Co received on Monday some 800 cruise tourists who came on board the Portuguese cruise ship Athena. The cruise travellers, most of whom were Australian, made a tour of HCM City and visited My Tho and Cu Chi Tunnels. They went shopping in Ben Thanh Market, watched water puppet performances and enjoyed Mekong Delta specialities.
Saigontourist has so far this year provided services to some 14,000 cruise tourists. The tour operator will receive the five-star cruise ship Columbus to Hai Phong and Nha Trang in mid-March and the five-star cruise ship Costa Allegra to HCM City and Da Nang on March 9 and 23.
EuroCham calls for more tourist visa exemptions
The European Chamber of Commerce in Viet Nam (EuroCham) has urged Viet Nam to grant visa exemption to more markets as a way of attracting more foreign visitors in 2010 to take full advantage of global travel recovery.
In the EuroCham Trade Issues and Recommendations 2010 book, the organisation said visa waiver expansion can contribute much to Viet Nam's tourism industry. EuroCham names more EU members, the US, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan as among the markets that can potentially account for a significant tourism revenue share for Viet Nam.
Viet Nam has allowed passport holders from Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Japan, South Korea and Russia to enter the country for a period of 15 days without a visa.
According to figures from the tourism authority, Viet Nam welcomed 404,000 visitors from the US, more than 271,000 from Taiwan and more than 218,000 from Australia in 2009.