The grace of ao dai (traditional long dress of Vietnamese women) shines at a show held by a Vietnamese photographer in Berlin, Germany.

The Sang, member of the Vietnamese Photographers’ Association in Germany, brings to his photo exhibition opening on May 13 more than 50 photos out of a collection he made during his tours of Hanoi, Hue City, HCMC, and cities in the Netherlands, Italy and Germany.

The photos feature middle-aged Vietnamese women wearing traditional ao dai during their visits to pagodas, and young Vietnamese and foreign girls in innovated ao dai during festive days and beauty feasts.

The photo show will last until July 31.

(Source: VOV)

The National Tourism Year 2010 will be held in Hanoi along with many activities to commemorate the 1000th anniversary of the capital city.

The event will be an opportunity for Hanoi’s tourist industry to increase its profile and become one of the most popular tourist destinations in the region and the world.

In preparation for the event, Hanoi’s tourist industry has introduced a number of new tours and special tourist products and will put on more events to attract more tourists throughout the year.

(Source: VOV)

Halong Bay - one of Vietnam’s World Heritage Sites - is officially a contender in the second phase of the New 7 Wonders of Nature.

The announcement was made on January 7 on the New 7 Wonders’ (N7W) website. To earn the elusive status, 261 national and international sites will vie to make it into the top 77.

The Mekong River, which flows China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar was nominated by six countries.

Voting will go on until July 7, 2009. Finalists will be chosen by the N7W Panel of Experts for short listing.

Twenty-one sites will be chosen in July 2009 to go forward to the next stage of voting.

The final voting stage will take place between 2010 and 2011. During this time, the N7W World Tour will visit all 21 sites. The N7W of Nature will be unveiled in the summer of 2011.

During the first phase of the campaign, which ran from July 2007 to December 31, 2008, three of Vietnam’s tourist hot spots were nominated, including Halong Bay, Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park and Fansipan Mountain.

(Source: VNA)

This morning, ASEAN tourism forum (ATF) has been opening ceremony in Hanoi with the participation of Minister of Tourism from 10 countries in the region. The first session discussed about broadcasting the images of ASEAN to the world and agreements of mutual recognition among the countries.

10 countries attended ATF includes Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

First session was chaired by Mr. Tran Chien Thang, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Culture and Information and Tourism. The delegates discussed measures to promote a stronger image of ASEAN tourism while the number of international visitors to the area is declining.

According to the discussion, the countries will coordinate with the U.S Agency of International Development to implement project for strengthening ASEAN competitiveness. The MOU will be signed at the tour seminar on January 10.

Particularly, the meeting adopted the final draft Agreements of mutual recognition in tourism so that Ministers can sign on January 9. This text will give favorable conditions for ASEAN citizens when travelling, developing human resource in the region.

The delegates also discussed about the construction of tourism investment corridor, the list of bases in residents’ house, assessing the performance in 2008. The delegates also proposed projects implemented in 2009 on all fields of marketing, human resources, investment, tourism standards, information of tourism crisis and cruise, etc.

In the morning of January 5, 2009, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has announced a discount campaign for 99 tours, from 30% - 50%, that is named “Impressive Vietnam”. 114 travel companies, hotels participate the promotion that is the biggest one to date.

This is the biggest reduction in comparison with most countries in Southeast Asia. 37 international travel companies and 55 three-star or five-star hotels, 2 passenger carriers pledged to reduce the cost by 30%-50%, equivalent to the discount level for ticket of Vietnam Airlines on international and domestic flights. 6 hotels accepted the reduction of 5%-30% for the agreement signed with the travel companies or applied other promotions. In addition, 14 shopping points in HCM City has also registered to join the program, giving priority to passengers who buy the promotional tours.

According to Mr. Tran Chien Thang, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, five market groups – France, Western Europe, Japan, Asean, Australia and New Zealand will be the major partners of the discount programs. General Department of Tourism will establish four market groups more in North America, Russia and Eastern Europe, Northern Europe and South Korea to continue the implementation.

Although international visitors are strongly declining, Mr.Trinh Hong Quang, Deputy General Director of Vietnam Airlines, said that in 2009, they will maintain the direct flights to Russia, Australia, France and expect to increase market share in Laos, Cambodia to help Vietnam’s travel companies in connecting tours for international vvisitors to the two countries. Especially, in January, Vietnam Airlines has decided to test package tour of Seoul - Da Nang - Siemriep with ticket of low price.

General Department of Tourism will coordinate with Vietnam Airlines, travel companies, some embassies to promote in this market and offer promotional products. Moreover, there is also a series of measures such as inviting travel companies, newspapers from major markets to involve in the survey, create international tours to China and ASEAN countries, negotiate with the tourism management of some countries to strengthen tourist exchange.

Center for Tourism News will launch the website of the campaign, continuously updating information and link to promotional tours of travel companies involved. Promotion activities ram expressly in ASEAN Tourism Forum and Travex Fair taking place in Hanoi from January 6 to January 12.

“Tour discount and keeping the quality” is confirmed by Mr. Vu The Binh, Director of Tourism, General Department of Tourism. Each Vietnam’s travel company involves in the program must be potential and have prestige to reduce the cost of tour but remaining service quality. Monitoring the implementation according to the commitment of the business has been assigned to the local offices in collaboration with the Association of Tourism by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

According to Vice Minister Tran Chien Thang, it has been impossible to declare that the campaign will attract many tourists and earn much money, but clearly that it has improved competitiveness in Vietnam’s tourism. It is worthy that in the most difficult context, enterprises has been responsible for creating their own power.

In 2008, Vietnam welcomed about 4.1 million of international tourists, has not achieved the target of 4.8 to 5 million visitors as proposed.

In the morning of January 5, 2009, in Hanoi, General Department of Tourism held a press conference about solutions for increasing the number of international tourists international tourists to Vietnam.

Mr. Tran Chien Thang, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Director of General Department of Tourism chaired the meeting report. Attending the conference also reported Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong, Deputy Director of General Department of Tourism, Mr. Vu The Binh, from Department of Tourism; leaders of Units of Tourism and many journalists, editors from local and central newspapers.

Because of negative impacts of global financial crisis for the world’s tourism in general and Vietnam’s tourism in particular, to block the declining, attract international visitors to Vietnam and promote domestic tourism, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has issued the Decision No.5476/QD-BVHTTDL on December 31, 2008 - Approval of the Action Programs of Tourism. Mr. Vu The Binh, from Department of Tourism, presented the major contents of the action program in order to attract international visitors and promote domestic tourism, including:

- The nationwide promotional tour. Announced a batch of 37 international travel companies, 61 hotels, 3 carriers, 14 shops to register for discounts from 30% to 50%, from now to September, 2009 with 99 tours.

- Broadcasting promotional campaign called “Vietnam Impressive”, with the participation of media in and outside the country, especially in key markets; General Department of Tourism has built a website for promotions to the domain: www.promotour.gov.vn; organized Famtrip and Presstrip groups for travel companies and foreign press to Vietnam.

- Establishing nine market groups, including international travel companies and Vietnam Airlines, with the participation of some hotels, restaurants and shops. This is the core for developing the promotion.

- Creating new tourism products. This is a long-term solution, to give favoured conditions for sustainable development of Vietnam’s tourism, as a base to attract international visitors and promote domestic tourism.

After the exchange and answering questions by journalists, Mr. Tran Chien Thang thanked the attention and encouragement from newspapers and radio reports for Vietnam’s tourism. In the spirit of connection, close cooperation between enterprises of tourism and service; administrative tourism in the central and locality, active support from newspapers and radio reports, Vietnam’s tourism strives to restore the growth of visitors in 2009 and in the coming time.

Artistic and floral creations will be on display, bringing colour to a 600-metre long street in the centre of Hanoi from Dec 28, three days before the festival officially begins to kick off the New Year’s celebrations. The five-day event, which will take place in Dinh Tien Hoang Street at Hoan Kiem Lake (Sword Lake), will gather purveyors of flowers and floral artisans from Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Lam Dong province’s Da Lat city, as well as craftsmen from Hanoi’s traditional villages.

According to Nguyen Thi Hoa, deputy director of the Vietnam Culture and Art Exhibition Centre, some 5,000 flowerpots and 20,000 cut flowers will be used for decoration at the event. Works of art will be created from flowers, or from a combination of flowers and traditional products, such as bird cages, wind bells, masks, drums and unicorns, Hoa said.

Two prominent works, a 9-metre fan made entirely of flowers and a 50-metre pottery street, a reproduction of 200 tiled-roof houses in the Old Quarter, are expected to be recognised as Vietnamese records during the event.

The festival has been organised as the opening event in a series of activities to mark the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long – Hanoi.

(Source: VietnamPlus)

The number of international visitors to Vietnam in comparison with previous years is decreasing, the growth rate accounts for only 1%, tourism made hundreds of products at a discount. However, in many hotels, many people are not sure that the project is feasible or not.

“The discounts also cause immediate difficulties for tourism, but if we do not have a promotional strategy, in the future though we want to have foreign tourists to reduce cost but threre will be no one any more,” Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong, Deputy of Vietnam Tourism have said at the meeting recently. Mr. Cuong also said that reduction strategy may be extended in the coming year to help Vietnam’s tourism to be recovered.

Vietnam Tourism expect that in the beginning of 2009, they will officially publish a package promotion tour for foreign tourists and officially introduce to the travel companies, partnerships and foreign media in the ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF). It is expected that they will select 15-20 major travel enterprises to construct more than 100 promotional tours committing the discount rate of 30-50%.

However, General Director of Majestic Saigon Hotel, Mr. Tao Van Nghe, said: “When applying hotel discount, we must consider the revenue gains, hotels can only register to participate, but commiting at the rate of 30-50% is so difficult. “

Representatives of Rex Hotel - Mrs. Mac Kim Thuy Huong – confirmed that: “The plan is suggested by Vietnam Tourism, that has put us to the commitment for implementing. Because this is the common strategy. However, we will select one of the suitable markets to commit discount applying while ensuring revenue for the hotel.”

“If travel companies do not agree to discount, hotels or a group of business partners do not participate, they will make the package discount tour incompleted”, Mr. Cuong emphatized.

Beside building product promotion system, Vietnam Tourism also proposed a series of methods to cope with the situation of tourism in Vietnam during economy crisis, such as: promoting the implementation of tourism advertisement campaign for Vietnam promotion, inviting delegations like Famtrip and Presstrip to visit the country, promoting the new destinations in Vietnam, attracting visitors from a number of important market, promoting the domestic markets and so on.

A meeting to discuss urgent measures to attract international tourists was hold by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on Dec. 10, 2008, in Hanoi. Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Tuan Anh presided at the conference.

Attending the conference are leaders of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) and representatives of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Finance, High Command of Border Guard…; General Director of Viet Nam Airlines and a number of foreign representative offices, leaders from 12 tourism departments in the cities and provinces which have big tourism potential and representatives of many travel companies, hotels, and other tourism-related companies; leaders of departments of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and VNAT; many journalists, reporters of the central and local magazines and televisions.

By the end of November, 2008 Vietnam had received only 3.9 million foreign tourists, making it hard for the country to achieve its target of welcoming 4.8-5 million foreign visitors this year. Face with this situation, tourism-related sectors need to have immediate solutions to attract more tourists. The solutions will be implemented in 2009.

The delegates proposed several solutions for the short and long-terms in order to solve the difficulties and obstacles which effect directly or indirectly to the process of attracting, serving tourists come to Vietnam.

Stimulating domestic demand is one of the most important solutions to mitigate the global financial crisis’s impacts on tourism. Other measures include promotional activities, tax policies, and human resources and infrastructure development.

(Source: Tourism Information Technology Center)

The UNESCO Vietnam association has announced the launch of two new awards, named “Vietnam’s cultural and tourism heritage” and “In support of the preservation and development of Vietnam’s cultural heritage”.

The association’s General Secretary Nguyen Xuan Thang said on Nov. 27, 2008 the annual awards were launched in response to Vietnam’s Heritage Law and UNESCO’s Convention concerning the protection of the world cultural and natural heritage.

They aim to encourage people to discover and vote for Vietnam’s tangible and non-tangible cultural heritages, and recognize the work of organizations and individuals who have contributed to the preservation and development of them.

They also offer a chance for localities and ministries to highlight and promote Vietnam’s unique culture, tourism and heritage.

(Source: Vietnamtoursim.com)