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Vietnam Open Tour News & EventsFRIDAY 18 DECEMBER, 2009 |
 Phu Quoc to call investors to 120-hectare Khem Beach The island district of Phu Quoc off Kien Giang Province will complete a master development scheme for Khem Beach in An Thoi Commune soon to call for investors to develop luxury tourism services there.
“We’ve planned to develop high-end services there. Investment into the beach shall not cost less than US$2 million per hectare,” Hon said. Phu Quoc Island, nearly an hour from HCMC by air, with neighboring countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore within the same radius, has a coastline of some 150 kilometers and covers 560 square kilometers. Hon said many local and foreign investors had shown interest in developing the 120-hectare beach. However, the island’s investment authority has yet to choose any investor because the development scheme is not complete. Not long ago, an investor named Bien Bac Joint Stock Company sought approval from Kien Giang Province to develop a luxury hotel and resort project on Khem Beach. The provincial government has entrusted the investment authority to discuss the project with the investor, who will be invited to join the bid if it can prove its financial capacity. The Central Government has been determined to develop Phu Quoc into a resort island, which should be able to draw three to five million tourists a year by 2020, and some seven million by 2030. As proposed, Phu Quoc will likely gain a special status under which the remote district will be authorized to develop a casino complex to better woo international visitors. However, a final decision is still pending the Prime Minister’s approval. In July, Hon from the investment authority told the Daily that the province had given investment certificates to 33 projects with total pledged investment of around VND30.8 trillion, or some US$1.75 billion, plus another 170 projects that have gained approval in principle. VietNamNet/SGT
Vietnamese will be the majority fellow dinners at ‘five star’ Christmas parties High income earners will attend Christmas parties at five star hotels. Eighty percent of those who have booked the parties are Vietnamese. Meanwhile, the rest of the populace say they have nowhere to go, since Hanoi lacks entertainment complexes.
On Hanoi's streeets One week before Christmas, Hanoians ask each other about where they should go on Christmas Eve December 24. The top priority for young people is flocking to the central streets and the church areas. “We still don’t know where we will go. However, I think that like previous years, we will drive on streets to enjoy the ‘Christmas atmosphere’. Then we will sit at some cafés and leave the café at midnight,” Van Anh, a student at Hanoi Open University, said. Like Van Anh, many other young people do not know where to go on Christmas. Hanoi does not have many places for entertainment, save a few parks. However, the parks do not have attractive activities to attract people. On Ta Hien street, called the ‘westerners’ street’ of Hanoi owing to the many expat bars, you still cannot feel a Christmas atmosphere yet. The tourists here say that if they were not travelling over the holidays they would have Christmas dinner then join the stream of people going around, and around, and around Hoan Kiem Lake. Gordon, an Australian tourist, told VietNamNet that his friends are touring across the country and will arrive in HCM City on Christmas. Others plan to go trekking in Sapa. He will stay in Hanoi and does not know where to go. He, like many others, will wander the ancient streets of Hanoi. The World of Games videao game arcade at Vincom tower or Star Bowl ten pin bowling are the few entertainment places in Hanoi. Going to cinema could be the good choice for young couples. Megastar cinema said that it has already begun selling tickets for films shown on December 24. Generally tickets are only sold two days in advance. While people are busy with work on the days leading up to Christmas, high rollers are eager for Christmas parties as they were booked so far in advance. Though prices at five star hotels are sky high, the majority of diners are Vietnamese, not ’wealthy’ foreigners. At the Sheraton Hanoi, for example, 80 percent of clients of the Christmas parties are Vietnamese “Family groups are always like snug parties and they can afford luxurious parties, while young people would rather go out than stay indoors,” noted Chu Hang, an executive at Sheraton Hotel. Once tasting coconut wine in HCMC When the sunset comes, young people gather at Le Thi Rieng Park in HCMC’s District 10 to meet, to talk and to enjoy coconut wine, a specialty of the Mekong Delta’s Ben Tre Province.
Then they put into the fruit a kind of enamel and sticky rice and then close up the hole. After some days, the enamel reacts chemically with the coconut water, sticky rice and inner white cover and makes a type of wine called coconut wine. A winemaker at Cong Thanh Coconut Winery said each coconut fruit included 200 mg/l acetaldehyde, 0.2 mg/l of lead and 5 mg/l of bronze. Mentioning coconut wine favor, Hoang Vu, an enthusiast, said, “Coconut wine has acidity and alcohol concentration like grape wine but it has the typical taste and fragrance of coconut. People are better to drink after freezing the wine.” Wine attracts many people not only by its strange flavor but also by the shape of the bottle. Winemakers tie a dried grass string around the coconut fruit in an effort to decorate it as well as for people to carry it easily. Thank to its good-looking shape, locals often buy coconut wine as gifts for special holidays or New Year. For some tourists, they buy it as a souvenir. The way of drinking is also attractive because drinkers drink through an aluminum pipe sticking into the coconut fruit. If tourists can not come to Ben Tre to enjoy coconut wine, they can come to Le Thi Rieng Park every afternoon. Each coconut wine fruit is priced at VND50,000 to VND60,000. VietNamNet/SGT Year-end traveling choices for tourists On the occasion of Christmas and New Year, travel agencies are offering foreign and domestic tours to meet the holiday travel demand.
Fiditour is offering a series of tours called Happy New Year Around 5 Continents. There is a four-day/three-night tour to Brunei and Kotakinabalu, Malaysia at around VND12.4 million on December 30, a six-day/seven-night tour to Japan at around VND41.9 million on December 20, a seven-day/eight-night tour to Australia at VND46.4 million on December 25 and a nine-day/eight-night tour to Germany, Holland, Belgium and France at VND59. 9 million on Dec. 21. Vietravel is offering a four-day tour to Korea at VND13.4 million on Dec. 31. These travel agencies are also celebrating the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi with many domestic tours. Vietravel is offering a series of tours called Hanoi Welcomes New Year 2010, emphasizing cultural events and landscapes of the North with a six-day tour to Hanoi, Yen Tu, Ha Long and Sapa and a four-day tour to Hanoi, Ha Long, Ninh Binh and Trang An. There is a tour called Dalat Flower Festival 2010. Prices are between some VND1.9 million and VND3.95 million per person. The most attractive tour of Saigontourist is a four-day tour called Dalat Welcomes New Year and Flower Festival. Prices are between VND1.8 million and VND3.5 million. Fiditour has introduced a series of tours called Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2010 with a three-day/two-night tour to Phu Quoc at VND4 million and a four-day/three-night tour to Nha Trang-Vinpearl Land at VND2.4 million. From this Friday, tourists who book domestic tours at Fiditour will receive discounted prices depending on the booking date. Vinpearl Land Travel Co. is offering a vacation package. Twenty hotels of the program called Dalat-Lam Dong Impression will offer 10-30% discounts on rooms on the occasion of Dalat Flower Festival. VietNamNet/SGT Boat traders at floating markets Floating markets like Cai Rang and Phong Dien contribute to the characteristics of the southwestern region of Vietnam. Dan Tri picks up the Cai Rang floating market.
The Cai Rang floating market in the early morning.
VietNamNet/Dan Tri
Luxury hotels to extend operations until 2 a.m. All high-end hotels nationwide will be allowed early next year to keep some entertainment facilities open until 2 a.m. instead of 12:00 a.m. to cater to tourists and improve business, according to a new Government decree.
All high-end hotels nationwide will be allowed early next year to keep some entertainment facilities open until 2 a.m. instead of 12:00 a.m. (Photo: Internet) Under the new rule, bars of three- to five-star hotels and discotheques and karaoke bars of four- to five-star hotels can stay open until 2:00 a.m. In July, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung approved the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s proposal to allow certain hotels to extend the opening time of their entertainment facilities by two hours to boost business in the wake of tough times. Hung asked the ministry to select hotels to join this pilot program until the end of next year. The hotel department is asking the Government to allow all luxury hotels to enjoy this incentive on a trial basis instead of a few selected hotels. The hotel department in September reported that the country had 303 three- to five-star hotels, including 32 five-star hotels and 92 four-star hotels. Of the activities expected to help tourism entrepreneurs overcome the tough times, the Deputy Prime Minister allows foreign-local joint venture tour operators to arrange outbound tours for Vietnamese and foreigners who live and work in the country. The old rules permitted these firms to arrange inbound tours for foreigners only. Vu The Binh, head of the Travel Department, told the Daily that three of 12 foreign-local joint venture tour operators had registered to organize outbound tours with some others completing their procedures. VietNamNet/SGT News for Wednesday 16 December, 2009
View all news for Wednesday 16 December, 2009 on one page Recent News
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