Da Nang fireworks competition will get bigger and better

Da Nang fireworks competition will get bigger and better



A fireworks display on the Han River in Da Nang. Photo credit: Da Nang Fireworks

The biennial Da Nang International Fireworks will be held every year from 2017 and will last for three weeks instead of only two days as in the past.

Sun Group will organize the event in March when the central city celebrates its liberation day March 29, Da Nang's government announced Friday.

The city began to host the annual event in 2008 but it became a biennial competition in 2013 due to financial difficulties. There have been mix results and the competition in some years failed to attract as many tourists as expected.

Sun Group now believes it can successfully run the event every year.

According to the group, eight teams are expected to compete next year, including Da Nang and past champions.

There will be other events to attract tourists including a food festival, paragliding shows and an international music festival, a company spokesperson said.

Sun Group said it will spend around VND50 billion (US$2.25 million) for the 2017 competition.

Official statistics showed the number of tourists visiting Da Nang during the fireworks event surged from 50,000 in 2008 to 460,000 last year.

~News courtesy of Thanh Nien~

Vietnam eyes $30 bln tourism revenue by 2020

Vietnam eyes $30 bln tourism revenue by 2020

The tourism sector targets annual revenues of US$30 billion and a 10 percent share of GDP by 2020, according to a plan by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Vietnam earned VND338 trillion ($15.1 billion) last year as it attracted more than 7.9 million international visitors and 57 million domestic tourists. It attracted more than 4.7 million international visitors in the first half of this year, a 21 percent increase year-on-year.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Ngoc Thien said Vietnam hopes to attract 14-15 million international visitors a year by 2020 and create around 3.5 million jobs in the tourism sector.

“Those targets are totally feasible because we are going to have many opportunities for development. The target is equal to only half of Thailand’s while our recent investment will bring effects.”

Thien was introducing the plan at a conference held between the central government and authorities from nine major tourism localities nation-wide.

Many officials said there should be changes in the mindset of officials to achieve the target of turning Vietnam into a tourism country within four years.

Van Thi Bach Tuyet, director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, said there is a lack of coordination between tourism and other agencies.

“In HCMC, waterway tourism faces barriers after the transport sector did not think about tourism when building low bridges.”

Dang Dinh Dung, Da Nang’s deputy mayor, said almost every city and province wants to promote international tourism in their locality without thinking about Vietnam as a whole.

Mindset, not money

Thien said the government only approves spending of around $2 million a year for tourism promotion, which is even lower than Vietnam Airlines’s budget to promote its image.

“Besides, the tourism promotion department and tourism offices abroad should be re-established.”

But Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue said changing the mindset of tourism management officials should be the major focus because money is not the primary element for development.

“The Hue Citadel earns less than $5 million a year while Cambodia’s Angkor Wat earns $360 million and Hawaii earns $65 billion. Why do we earn such meager amount?”

According to Asia Pacific Tourism Association, only 6 percent of international tourists visiting Vietnam come for a second time. “The primary issue is the way to develop tourism, not money or the number of personnel,” Hue said.

Dung said the government exchequer should not be used to promote tourism.

“Tourism companies should spend their own money for effective tourism promotion. Only then will they learn about the market’s demands and what they should do.”

~News courtesy of Thanh Nien~

Anh muốn chia tay phải không - Lương Bích Hữu

HCMC asking hotels, shops to open toilets to tourists

Ho Chi Minh City asking hotels, shops to open toilets to tourists



A public toilet in Ho Chi Minh City's District 1. Photo: Huu Nguyen/VnExpress

Ho Chi Minh City is encouraging shops and hotels to open their toilets to tourists and list the facilities on online maps.

Tran Vinh Tuyen, the city’s vice chairman, at a meeting Monday asked the tourism department to discuss the initiative with local businesses in the downtown area.

Once the businesses agree to let the public use their toilets, the Science and Technology Department will make sure that tourists can easily locate them, Tuyen said.

Officials from District 1 said many businesses in the area have promised to join the program.

The city has built new public toilets at several parks over the past few years but the number is still small. Most other public toilets at bus terminals or markets are old and dirty.

The city hopes to welcome 5.1 million foreign visitors this year, up from 4.7 million last year.

~News courtesy of Thanh Nien~

Vietnam delays work on largest airport until 2021

Vietnam delays work on largest airport until 2021: report



A digital rendering of the planned Long Thanh Airport in the southern province of Dong Nai, around 40 kilometers to the northeast of Ho Chi Minh City.

State-owned Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) has confirmed that complex preparatory work will delay the construction of the country's US$15.8 billion airport near Ho Chi Minh City. In its recent report to the Ministry of Transport, the manager of 22 airports said work on Long Thanh Airport will likely start in April 2021, news website Dau Tu reported Tuesday. That will put the project in Dong Nai Province at least two years behind the original schedule. It is taking ACV longer than expected to finish all the pre-construction tasks for the megaproject, described as the "biggest ever."

The selection of consultants for the project's feasibility study, for instance, will not be completed until January next year, about nine months behind the previous deadline.

Long Thanh Airport, about 40 kilometers from HCMC, is designed to serve 100 million passengers and five million tons of goods annually.

It is expected to replace the country's currently biggest airport Tan Son Nhat, which reached its full capacity of 20 million passengers a year in 2013.

~News courtesy of Thanh Nien~

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