Cash-trapped organizer seeks sponsors for Vietnam tourism year
14/01/08 (GMT+7)
Sponsors for Vietnam tourism year, the organizing committee for the national tourism year, Mekong Can Tho 2008, is in dire need of funds to run the event beginning next month, and has called on more sponsors to lend a helping hand.
Dinh Viet Khanh, director of the tourism department of the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho Vietnam, told the Daily on Monday that the organizing committee now needs nearly VND10bil more to make both ends meet.
The committee has estimated the total cost at VND30bil, or nearly US$2mil, to put all planned activities into play, but only two-thirds of the cost has been secured.
One-third of the money was initially planned to come from the central State budget, one-third from Can Tho City's government, and the remainder from sponsors, Khanh said. However, the expected sum from the central budget has evaporated, he lamented.
"The bad news is that the organizer will not receive financial support from the central Government. We are therefore calling for more sponsors in a rush," he said.
Up to now, the committee has received VND14bil from sponsors, including VND10bil in cash, and VND4bil in services. Time is running out, as the organizer will next week close the list of sponsors for the grand opening of the event.
However, "we will continue to call for more contributions for events following the opening," he said.
With the theme "Cuu Long Rural Waterways," the national tourism year will kick off on February 21 in Can Tho City. The festival features about 30 events throughout the year in the city, including the Mekong Delta Food Festival in February, a flower lantern festival to celebrate the Reunification Day on April 30, a traditional boat race in late April, and a fruit festival.
Other Mekong Delta provinces and Ho Chi Minh City will organize over 20 events for the year.
The organizer expects that a series of tourism events throughout this year would help Can Tho bolster visitor arrivals in the city to two million this year, compared with around 1.5mil last year, and also to bring a positive impact on the tourism industry for other provinces in the region.
"More things need to be done, but we believe that we can make 2008 the year of bustling tourism activities in the Mekong Delta region," Khanh said.
Unlike remarks by the tourism official, many tour operators have complained about the tardy liaison between the organizing committee and entrepreneurs to better cater to tourists. Tour operators still do not have information about detailed events, and the date of events to promote the tourism year to tourists.
"(We are) without detailed programs. Big events like the tourism year should be announced a long time beforehand so that tour operators can prepare themselves for selling the tours," Nguyen Van Tran, general director of Apex Vietnam Co., Ltd., told the Daily on Monday.
Tran said that his company's regular guests, especially Japanese tourists, prefer tours to explore the Mekong Delta Vietnam.
Like this tour operator, Nguyen Tan Hoa, director of Vietnam Festival Company, said that the committee announced the event in the middle of last year, but no further information about the detailed events has been supplied ever since.
"Until know, we still don't know about the dates and the contents of the tourism year's major events to arrange our tours. The organizer should fix the dates of events one year in advance," he said.
Khanh from Can Tho City said his department had sent the scheduled program to Vietnam tour operators, and but the organizer itself is still waiting for specific schedules of other programs from other localities to make the final program.
"We cannot make the final program soon because we will just organize 30 of 56 events in the year. But, we will send the tourism year's final program next week to tour operators," he said.
(Source: SGT)
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