VN participates in int’l tourism fair in France

Four Vietnamese tourist companies - La Palanche Voyages, Luxury Travel, Vietnam Originale and Cle Voyage - joined in the 2011 Le Monde à Paris (MAP) International Tourism Fair from March 17-20.
MAP is one of the biggest tourism fairs in Europe , together with the annual Top RESA Tourism Fair which is held in September.
This year’s fair highlighted special festivals from different countries throughout the world, such as carnivals of Brazil, Belgium and the northern region of France; harvest festivals of Croatia, Spain, Turkey, and Greece; and water festival of Myanmar.
More than 100,000 visitors flocked to the four-day fair, which featured over 500 booths of well-known travel firms, hotels and restaurants worldwide.
Director of La Palanche Voyages Nguyen Xuan Hai said his company has considered France a strategic market to directly introduce its services to French as well as European holidaymakers.
Vietnam has been a favourite destination of French and European tourists thanks to its political and security stability well as its cultural diversity, he said.
* Queen Mary brings tourists to Nha Trang
The world’s largest cruise liner, Queen Mary 2, with over 2,430 tourists aboard, visited Nha Trang Bay in the southcentral province of Khanh Hoa on March 21.
The tourists, mostly from the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States and Canada, came to see scenic and relic sites and enjoy having special food and shopping in the locality.
On the afternoon of the same day, the cruise liner left Nha Trang Bay for Thailand.
Statistics from the Khanh Hoa tourism sector show that in the first three months of this year, Nha Trang Bay welcomed 13,000 arrivals on 12 international cruise liners.