Beach beautiful, but travelers don’t loosen purse-strings

16:55' 30/07/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam has many beautiful beaches, among which, Da Nang beach has been recognised by the US Forbes magazine as one of the most wonderful beaches on the planet. However, this is not enough to lure travelers and persuade them to spend money. While people in the world now tend to travel by sea, the number of foreign tourists coming by cruise ship to Vietnam remains modest. It is estimated that European travelers spend 50-70% of their time in Vietnam relaxing on beaches. According to Truong Nam Thang, Director of OSC travel firm, most foreign tourists stay in HCM City for one night only, and then travel to the central region to enjoy the fresh atmosphere and wonderful beaches there. Statistics of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) show that Vietnamese sea areas attract 70% of foreign tourists. Lacking… ways to beaches While people in the world now tend to travel by sea, the number of foreign tourists coming by cruise ship to Vietnam remains modest. According to VNAT, the number of foreign cruise tourists just accounts for 6% of the total number of travelers visiting Vietnam. The tourists only stay in Vietnam for two or three days on average; therefore, they do not have much time for sightseeing, entertainment and shopping. Most of the cruise ships dock at merchandise ports, while there are not specialised ports for tourism ships in Vietnam. Many big ships cannot go far into the port, while travelers have to be ferried ashore, which takes time and discourages tourists. The Institute for Transport Development Strategy under the Ministry of Transport has acknowledged that the seaport development strategy does not mention the port system for tourism. An official said that the situation would be improved once the ministry drew up a plan on developing a port system modern and capable enough to receive big cruise ships at key tourism points like Ha Long Bay, Hue, Da Nang and Nha Trang city, HCM City, Vung Tau and Phu Quoc Island. Beaches beautiful, but still need advertisement Analysts have said that Vietnam has never paid appropriate attention to the advertisement of its seas and beaches. In fact, VNAT published bulletins with special issues on Vietnam’s sea landscapes, but they just provided general information. Vietnam has never participated in conferences and trade fairs with the focus on sea traveling and cruise traveling. Only recently, when working with the US CNN television, did VNAT mention advertisement for Vietnam’s seas and beaches with Ha Long Bay being the focus. The strategy on tourism development by 2010 and vision to 2020 also did not mention sea travel development. Meanwhile, Vietnam now has to compete with regional countries including Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia in terms of attracting tourists. Director of the Tourism Department of Binh Thuan Ngo Minh Chinh has asked VNAT to build standards for types of sea travel: which sea areas should be reserved for rehabilitation travel, which ones for sea sports and entertainment, and which for open air sea travel. Local authorities would refer to the standards to programme their tourism development strategy. VNAT plans to submit to the Government a project on sea and island travel development by 2010 with a vision to 2020. One day, Vietnam will also have its trademarks for sea travel as other regional countries have, like Indonesia’s Bali and Thailand’s Phuket. (Source: Tuoi tre, Viet Nam Net)