Vietnam Breaking News

Vietnam sees sharp rise in cruise ship visits

Vietnam sees sharp rise in cruise ship visits
Vietnam has become an attractive Asian destination for international cruise ships, with more than 400 cruise ships arriving last year, according to data of the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA).
Majestic Princess, the newest ship in the Princess Cruises fleet, came to the Phu My Port in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province in the middle of last year 
Farriek Tawfik, director of Southeast Asia for Princess Cruises, said CLIA’s data showed Vietnam was sixth most-visited by cruise ships in Asia last year. Most of the cruise ships visited the country’s popular coastal tourist attractions like Danang, Hue, Nha Trang, Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Halong.
According to Tawfik, the cruise tourism sector in Vietnam will maintain growth momentum this year. Princess Cruises will send 31 cruise ships to Vietnam this year, with a total of 80,000 foreign tourists aboard.
In the past, travel firms only arranged cruise ship visits to Vietnam between November and February. At present, many cruise lines offer tours from November until April or even all year round.
Speaking at a press conference on Princess Cruises’ plan in Vietnam on January 16, Tawfik said the cruise line expects 40% growth in the number of visitors to Vietnam this year.
In 2017, Princess Cruises ships made 22 visits to Vietnam, with more than 58,000 passengers on board.
This year, six ships of the cruise line – Majestic Princess, Sapphire Princess, Diamond Princess, Golden Princess, Sun Princess and Coral Princess – will make 31 visits to the country, with a total of 80,000 international passengers aboard.
From February 10 to 11, Princess Cruises will organize a fair in Vivo City commercial center in HCMC’s District 7 to introduce its cruise tours on Majestic Princess and Sun Princess vessels from Vietnam to Taiwan and Japan, and some cruise tours to Europe.
Tawfik said Princess Cruises targets high-income Vietnamese customers aged between 20 and 39.
According to Tawfik, the number of Vietnamese traveling on cruise ships has grown strongly. In addition to visa support, tour operators have interpreters for large groups of tourists along the journeys.
SGT
 
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Vietnam sees sharp rise in cruise ship visits

Vietnam sees sharp rise in cruise ship visits Vietnam has become an attractive Asian destination for international cruise ships, with more t...

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Majestic scenery of Hai Van Mountain Pass

Majestic scenery of Hai Van Mountain Pass

Majestic scenery of Hai Van Mountain Pass Lying on the border of Thua Thien Hue province and Da Nang city in central Vietnam, the 20km long...

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Seven wonders take bloom at Ha Long flower festival

Seven wonders take bloom at Ha Long flower festival
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The event is part of the diverse activities held in preparation for the Lunar New Year festival (Tet) organised by Sun Group at the Sun World Ha Long Complex.
The seven wonders of the world to be erected in flower form are the Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Wall of China, the legendary Colosseum in Rome, France’s Eiffel Tower, London’s Big Ben, the US’ Statue of Liberty, and Australia’s Sydney Opera House.
Aside from colourful flower roads and world wonders, visitors will be entertained by fascinating art programs such as carnival shows of foreign artists from Sun World Ba Na hills, street band performances, traditional costumes of different nations, and a range of activities to welcome the New Year to the world.
Tourists to Sun World Ha Long Complex can play hundreds of indoor games, enjoy the stunning views of Ha Long Bay from the Queen Cable Car,visit the Japanese garden, or meet their idols at the wax museum.
Maius Phiharmonic orchestra will also be present to delight audiences at the festival with pieces of Vietnamese music remixed with the world’s modern tunes. 
 
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Seven wonders take bloom at Ha Long flower festival

Seven wonders take bloom at Ha Long flower festival The event is part of the diverse activities held in preparation for the Lunar New Year ...

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Huge crowds expected in Vietnam’s top tourist destinations this spring festival

Huge crowds expected in Vietnam’s top tourist destinations this spring festival
The Lunar New Year, the most important festival in Vietnam, is no longer just about house parties. The long holiday has become a good time to travel, and bookings in popular tourist towns across the country have been flooding in.
Travel fever has spread from the southern island of Phu Quoc to the mountainous town of Sa Pa up north ahead of the holiday, which will peak in mid-February.
Holiday seekers have learned from past experiences to avoid cheap and middle-range facilities, which tend to raise prices when demand is high, but they’re not having much luck with luxury hotels either.
Kim Hanh from Saigon said she has been looking for a high-end resort in Phu Quoc but they are already fully booked for the first three days of the new year, between February 16 and 18.
Some places only have rooms from February 20, the last day of the one-week break, which is known as Tet in Vietnam.
Phu Quoc is the largest island in Vietnam and offers excellent seafood and a captivating landscape. However, the island’s natural beauty has been <a href="http://bit.ly/2DMtE5r">compromised by a tourism boom</a> that has led to the development of a safari park and a bunch of luxury hotels springing up, and that development does not look like slowing given the demand.
In the ancient town of Hoi An in central Vietnam, five-star hotels also expect to be crowded during Tet, and several are also fully booked for the first three days.
But travelers may still be able to find vacant rooms at homestay facilities for between VND200,000 ($8.80) and VND1 million ($44) a night, according to locals.
Once a bustling trade port, Hoi An draws tourists thanks to its mesmerizing wooden architecture, pagodas, streetside eateries, vintage tailor shops and sparkling street lanterns. It is often praised as one of the most peaceful towns in the country, except during the holidays.
More than a thousand kilometers (680 miles) to the north, the mountainous town of Sa Pa is experiencing the same holiday rush, prompting booking sites to urge travelers to make their minds up quickly before prices surge.
Three-star hotels and more luxurious accommodation tend to keep their prices stable, but smaller facilities are subject to price changes.
The owner of one guesthouse said that many hotels will raise prices by up to 40 percent over the holiday as their employees will have to work three times harder.
Perched at 1,600 meters above sea level, Sa Pa is often described as the perfect place for travelers looking for a strenuous mountain trek or a rice paddy tour.
Demand for air travel for the coming Lunar New Year is also expected to surge more than 20 percent from last year, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam said last month, as cited by local media.
Carriers have registered thousands of extra domestic flights for the holiday, mainly from Hanoi to Saigon.
Train and bus companies have also announced more services, expecting even higher demand than last year.
 
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Huge crowds expected in Vietnam’s top tourist destinations this spring festival

Huge crowds expected in Vietnam’s top tourist destinations this spring festival The Lunar New Year, the most important festival in Vietnam, ...

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Vietnam leads in Southeast Asian tourist number to Japan

Vietnam leads in Southeast Asian tourist number to Japan
<div class="article-photo">(Source: http://s.nikkei.com/2DmYoga)</div>
Tokyo (VNA) – Vietnam leaded Southeast Asiancountries in the number of tourists visiting Japan over the last decade with agrowth rate of 868.1 percent, according to the Nikkei website.
The country was followed by Thailand and Indonesia, with the respective growthrates of 489.3 percent and 448.7 percent.
Last year, about 28.6 million foreign holiday-makers visited Japan, up 19.3percent year on year.
China was the No.1 source of visitors to Japan in the year, accounting for 7.35million or 25.6 percent of the total. The Republic of Korea was close behind at7.14 million or 24.8 percent.
In 2007, only 942.439 Chinese tourists came to Japan. But the figure soared by 680.5percent in the period 2007-2017.
International visitors to Japan spent a record 4.41 trillion yen (39.87 billionUSD in 2017, the site said.
The most attractive destinations for foreign visitors are tourism sites in Tokyo,Osaka, Hokkaido and Kyoto cities.
Easier traffic and direct airline routes connecting many Asian countries with Japanhave also contributed to attracting tourist to Japan.
The Japanese government aims to increase the number of annual tourist arrivals to40 million by 2020, when Tokyo will host the Summer Olympics.-VNA
 
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Vietnam leads in Southeast Asian tourist number to Japan

Vietnam leads in Southeast Asian tourist number to Japan (Source: http://s.nikkei.com/2DmYoga) Tokyo (VNA) – Vietnam leaded Southeast Asia...

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Two train trips in VN among Asia Top 10 journeys

Two train trips in VN among Asia Top 10 journeys
Travelling by train to relax and enjoy the view out the window is a pleasure for many travelers, and two train routes in Vietnam with stunning views were recently selected among the ten best train journeys in Asia by the UK-based newspaper The Telegraph.
Taking 36 hours, the Reunification Express connects Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and reveals the beautiful natural and rural areas Vietnam boasts. 
The 1,600-km (1,000-mile) journey passes through a pastoral parade of pagodas, paddies and farmers wearing conical hats, together with beaches and mountains, The Telegraph wrote. 
Moreover, travelers can hop off along the way to relax at beach resorts in Nha Trang and the endless swathes of sand in Da Nang, Vietnam’s third-largest city, where they can also take in the beautiful Chinese, European, Japanese and Vietnamese architecture in the World Heritage Site of Hoi An ancient town. 
The north-south trip costs $37 for a soft seat and $55 for a sleeper, both in air-conditioned cabins.
Travel publisher Rough Guides also named the route one of the most scenic in Asia last year, where one can watch buffalos grazing in rice paddies and fishermen casting their nets in the sea as well as deserted white beaches and lush rainforests.
Meanwhile, the 563-km mountainous route from Hanoi to Kunming in China is also a great experience, with mountains and terraced rice fields, and found a place on the list. 
The route was opened by the French in 1910 and was at various times bombed, re-routed, and closed by landslides until it reopened in 2014. 
The 16-hour journey in a soft sleeper cabin through the rice terraces of Sapa, Vietnam’s premier hiking territory, costs from $34.
The other Top 10 train journeys on The Telegraph’s list propels travelers through the jungles of Malaysia and Thailand, mosques and temples in Bangladesh, plantations in Sri Lanka, from the suburbs of Mumbai to palm forests in the countryside, from Indonesia’s bustling capital of Jakarta to its cultural capital Yogyakarta, from Beijing to Shanghai, and from Yokohama to Shimoda in Japan, with wonderful views of Mt. Fuji.
Vietnam’s first railway line was built by the French in 1881, running 70 km (43 miles) from then-Saigon to My Tho in the Mekong Delta. 
A north-south line of more than 3,000 km was built over the following decades. 
Rail transport has faded rapidly in Vietnam over recent years, given the little attention it has received and the rise of cheap air travel.
Vietnam Railways is making an effort to improve service quality to attract more passengers. 
Earlier this month it added five-star trains on its Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City service and piloted a service offering free meals to passengers.
Some private train companies have also been trying to revive the romance of train travel, offering first-class trips with restaurant cars, such as the five-star services launched last year from Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang and from Hanoi to Sapa.
VN Economic Times
 
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Two train trips in VN among Asia Top 10 journeys

Two train trips in VN among Asia Top 10 journeys Travelling by train to relax and enjoy the view out the window is a pleasure for many trave...

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The tea that mesmerises drinkers

The tea that mesmerises drinkers
VietNamNet Bridge – Tea has been an essential part of Vietnamese life for thousands of years. It is believed that the refreshing beverage not only calms the mind, but also helps ward off a number of common diseases.
Tea drinking is a daily habit of Vietnamese. Tea is served at formal and informal meetings, during meals and a gathering of friends. Offering a cup of tea also expresses hospitality and friendliness.
When talking about tea and the place of perfect tea products, most Vietnamese people mention Tan Cuong Commune, the northern province of Thai Nguyen, as the first destination.
Tan Cuong tea scores high in the international market. This highland district is well-known in Vietnam for its cultivation of aromatic tea for 100 years.
This special product from Tan Cuong Commune possesses a delicious taste that can mesmerise even the choosiest tea drinkers. The first sip leaves a bitter taste on the tip of the tongue, but that taste immediately transforms into a deep sweet flavour when the tea is swallowed.
Located in the red-brown soil of the midlands mountain area, Tan Cuong is highly suitable for tea bushes. The soil is slightly acrid, which gives the tea a taste found nowhere else, according to PhD Nguyen Lan Anh from the Ha Noi Tourism College.
“The natural characteristics and climate conditions favour Tan Cuong Commune with wonderful tea products,” said Anh.
“Besides, the experience and technique of local farmers in growing and processing tea leaves creates a specialty that people enjoy down to the last drop.”
Currently, the province has nearly 1,500ha of tea which produces 19,000 tonnes of tea buds a year.
“Tan Cuong tea is exported to many countries, including Russia, the United States and Japan,” she said.
Tea is the strategic product of Thai Nguyen Province. In recent years, tea bushes have provided high economic value and jobs for thousands of farmers.
That’s why local people strive to make high quality products and build up a prestigious brand.
“Tan Cuong Tea is totally fed with organic fertilisers and is free from pesticides and plant protection chemicals harmful to human health,” said Dam Hong Quang, owner of Viet Co Tra brand, which produces and sells Tan Cuong tea.
“Tan Cuong tea is picked with the standard ‘one bud, two leaves’, the best part of a tea bush, to ensure the best quality,” he said.
The leaves are processed using traditional secrets. After being picked, green tea buds are stored carefully until they reach perfection, then delivered to the factory for processing, where they are dried and roasted several times in large pans.
It is necessary to evenly and smoothly stir the leaves to soften them and preserve the natural green colour. The dried tea is packed in vacuum bags, which are thick enough to keep all light and air out.
To make 1kg of dried tea, 20 workers have to collect tea buds for two hours early in the morning.
“During the picking, if it rains heavily or the sun is scorching, the taste of tea will change,” said Quang.
“It can be more bitter or the colour of the tea may be not green. Some people drink tea mixed with dried roses, lotuses or daisies.”
 However, Quang prefers drinking pure Tan Cuong tea to enjoy its full fragrance.
“Tea is good for your health,” he said. “Throughout its history, tea has been associated with important health benefits. Many studies show that tea contains a high level of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and mild stimulants.”
You don’t need to be a connoisseur to enjoy tea. In the chill of winter, a group of friends can sit around a tea table, effusively praise the taste of a hot cup of tea and enjoy talking. The world shrinks to the people around the kettle. The sweet taste of tea and keo lac (peanut candy), which is often served at a tea party, can linger on your lips for a long time. 
By Minh Thu
Source: VNS
 
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The tea that mesmerises drinkers

The tea that mesmerises drinkers VietNamNet Bridge – Tea has been an essential part of Vietnamese life for thousands of years. It is believe...

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