A tourist resort in town

Only two kilometers from the city downtown, Van Thanh Tourist Site covers 7.7 hectares, including a two-hectare lake which creates a fresh air and spacious atmosphere for a wide range of outdoor activities. Its restaurants can serve 2,000 guests at a time while the garden capable of accommodating 5,000 visitors is good for parties and ceremonies at the lakeside with Thuy Ta Restaurant and Dung Dinh Café. Van Thanh also offers other conveniences, for instance four tennis courts with two of them indoors, a big swimming pool, a kids’ corner, meeting rooms and photography.

Dining services is the main source of revenue for Van Thanh. With the scenic view and airy space and convenient location, Van Thanh becomes a breakfast rendezvous for group tours. Daily breakfast from 6 a.m. provides delicious menus. Some highlights are com tam (Vietnamese broken rice), bun bo Hue (Hue-style beef vermicelli soup), pho bo (beef noodle soup) and pho ga (chicken noodle soup), among others.

As its name may suggest, Dung Dinh Café is both a restaurant and a café. Located at the main entrance of the tourist site, the café with classical architecture and a peaceful garden atmosphere helps guests feel comfortable and relaxing. With a seating capacity of 140 guests, Dung Dinh Café is a great place for birthday parties and gets-together. The café is open daily from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Piano performance starts from 7-8:30 p.m. every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday while a countryside music band entertains guests from 7-9 p.m. every Wednesday and Saturday. From 7-9 p.m. on Fridays and Sundays are for violin performance. Guests can order coffee, ice-cream, cocktail, mock tail, beer and alcohol and foods at the café.

The “Buffet Van Thanh” program featuring over 50 Asian and Western dishes are available from 5 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday. It costs VND270,000 an adult and VND150,000 a child. Van Thanh is running a promotion program for a-la-carte menus from May 2 to August 31. Each bill worth from VND2.5 million and from VND5 million will be presented one and two dining vouchers respectively.

The swimming pool at Van Thanh is always a favorite place for guests. Van Thanh offers full swimming packages and swimming teaching courses for both adults and children.

Four tennis courts are suitable for organizing tournaments. It costs from VND40,000 to VND150,000 an hour.

Shelters for outdoor activities are something special at Van Thanh. Open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, each shelter is for 10 guests at maximum. Additional charges are collected from the 11th person. Guests can order foods and drinks there or bring by themselves with available stoves. It costs VND300,000 a shelter on a weekday and VND600,000 on a weekend and holiday.

Van Thanh Tourist Site: 48/10 Dien Bien Phu St., Binh Thanh Dist., HCMC. Tel: 08.3512 3026. Email: vanthanh.resort@gmail.com

A tourist resort in town

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Int’t arrivals slide for 12th month

Data of the General Statistics Office (GSO) showed that internationalarrivals in the first five months of this year have gone down by 12.6%year-on-year to over 3.27 million.

Guests from most of Vietnam’s major visitor-generating markets havedropped, except for Japan and Taiwan with modest increases of 5-7%.

Now is the off-peak travel season for inbound tours in Vietnam.However, local travel companies worry about their performance in thecoming months as their foreign partners said the situation would notimprove anytime soon. 

According to the Vietnam Tourism Association (VITA), the depreciationof some foreign currencies like the euro, yen and Australian dollaragainst the U.S. dollar have made U.S. dollar-denominated Vietnam toursmore expensive. The economic malaise in some major visitor-generatingmarkets for Vietnam is also to blame.    

Therefore, VITA has proposed the Government exempt all internationalvisitors from the visa fee of US$45 from July to December as this wouldhelp them save not only the visa fee but also other associated servicecharges when applying for visas.

The organization has also suggested the Government approve value addedtax (VAT) breaks and delay corporate income tax payments for travelenterprises and hotels for six months or one year so that they can havemoney for promotion programs to attract foreign travelers.

But the Government has yet to approve the proposals and applyunilateral visa exemptions to tourists from more majorvisitor-generating markets.

Nguyen Van Nen, minister-chairman of the Government Office, told theGovernment’s regular monthly media conference in Hanoi on Wednesday thatthe Government discussed visa exemptions for travelers from somecountries at its recent cabinet meeting but more time would be needed todecide as there were differences over this matter.

Nen said the Government would create favorable conditions for foreigntourists based on relations between Vietnam and their nations. The PrimeMinister will issue a directive to remove hindrances in the tourismsector to spur its development.   

In a related development, the Government has approved setting up the Tourism Development Fund to support this sector.

But the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has suggestedcollecting an accommodation service charge of VND10,000-20,000 per night(45-92 U.S. cents) from international visitors but has yet to detailthe collection method.   

Int’t arrivals slide for 12th month

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Tien Ca Cave in Ninh Binh Province

The cavern spans around 1,200m long and winds through the stone mountains.

Around 110 km from Hanoi, Thung Nham is a huge valley surrounded by mountains. This is a new tourism site in Ninh Binh Province with a different kind of tourism products for visitors to experience (such as rowing, walking along gardens, mountain climbing, riding and camping).

Tien Ca Cave in Ninh Binh Province

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Hanoi-HCM City-Binh Thuan tourist route expected

They visited popular attractions, such as the Mui Ne sand dunes, the HamTien resort capital, and the wine castle and islets of Phu Quy island,testing accommodation and dining services in hotels and luxury resorts.

During a working session, the provincial TourismAssociation informed the delegation that the locality welcomed 3.8million guests in 2014, with international tourists accounting for 12percent. All in all, tourism generated 6 trillion VND (285 million USD)in revenue.

In the first quarter of this year, over1 million tourists arrived in Binh Thuan, up by 6 percent year on year,earning the province around 2 trillion VND (95.2 million USD), a 8.72percent rise on a yearly basis.

The main touristroute in the region is triangular and includes Saigon market, Da Latflower gardens and Mui Ne beach, as well as the traditional festivals ofNghinh Ong (whale worshipping) and Kate, the association said.

The delegation suggested offering free pick-up services at train andbus stations, maintaining vegetation surrounding hotels and resorts, andimproving staff quality.

Binh Thuan is currentlyhome to 271 places of accommodation in 10,400 rooms. Out of these 271,172 are accredited and three achieved the five-star standard.

The locality is home to 44 travel agencies, including six outbound tour operators.

Hanoi’s foreign arrival growth slows down

The number of foreign arrivals in Hanoi rose a moderate 5 percent, reaching nearly 1.4 million in the first five months of this year, according to the municipal Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Domestic arrivals hit 6.7 million, up a mere 2 percent year-on-year.

The visitor number increase in Hanoi is equivalent to the level recorded by the southern metropolis Ho Chi Minh City.

In early May, the department submitted a report to the city authorities about the progress of a project turning Ba Vi – Suoi Hai area into a national tourism park by 2020. The department also conducted several activities to promote the world’s intangible cultural heritage Giong festival abroad while offering training in tourism to communities in the two outlying districts of Soc Son and Gia Lam where the festival takes place.

The department is working on a Hanoi tourist product development strategy for 2016-2020, while preparing for the Hanoi cultural days to be held in Japan’s Fukuoka city in the near future.

To create a safe and friendly environment, the municipal tourism sector will partner with agencies concerned to crack down on thief and scam targeting tourists.

Training on guest reception and tour guide skills in craft villages, especially in outlying districts will be made available.

Hanoi-HCM City-Binh Thuan tourist route expected

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Thousand-year old cave gives Cao Bang a splendid beauty

Nguom Ngao Cave in Gun Hamlet, Dam Thuy Village, Trung Khanh District was discovered in 1921 by local people. It is considered a most beautiful cave in Vietnam thanks to its uniqueness and size.

Nguom Ngao means “Cave of Tigers” in the Tay ethnic minority language.

Nature has endowed the cave with stone formations that look like human beings, trees, plants and mythical animals.

The cave is enormous (about 3km long) and one branch reaches almost all the way to the waterfalls, where there is a ‘secret’ entrance.

Thousand-year old cave gives Cao Bang a splendid beauty

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Cafe for photography enthusiasts in Hanoi

The front.    The first floor.    The price for drinks is from VND25,000 to VND60,000 ($1.2-2.8). Coffee here is very delicious. The second floor. Sitting indoors or outdoors you can look out on the street. The café is the venue of photography enthusiasists in Hanoi. The exchange and purchase of photos sometimes take place at the cafe. It is also suitable for group meetings. This is a place for photography teaching activities. The café also holds many contests for photographers.

Cafe for photography enthusiasts in Hanoi

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Tourism programme promotes Son Doong in Singapore

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Tuan Anh will have a working session with Singaporean Minister of Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang on measures to spur bilateral tourism cooperation.

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) and travel agents will promote the nation’s tourism sites and cooperation opportunities.

Howard Limbert, head of the Son Doong cave adventure team will talk about the tourism potential in central Quang Binh province and a plan to make a film featuring Son Doong on Singapore’s TV Channel 5.

Singapore is expected to welcome tens of thousands of visitors from ASEAN and other countries during the 28th SEA Games, offering a good opportunity for the VNAT to promote tourism in Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries.

Tourism programme promotes Son Doong in Singapore

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