Vietnam Travel in Brief 31/3
31/03/08 (GMT+7)
Quang Nam to boost traditional craft villages
A handicraft village development project that aims to create jobs for ethnic minorities in eight mountain districts was approved by the central province of Quang Nam last week.
The first stage of the project will involve zara tho cam (traditional hand-woven fabric) production at a village in Nam Giang District and ruou can (a popular alcoholic drink made of wild leaves, cassava roots, and rice, and drunk using bamboo stems) in Bac Tra My District.
An investment of US$95,000 has been earmarked for the traditional wine village.
Strong euro, weak dollar decide tour preferences
Many Vietnamese tourists are choosing to visit the US instead of Europe after the dong weakened against the euro but strengthened against the dollar.
Tran Thuy Dung, deputy director of Carnival Travel agency, says though it is now the high tourist season in Europe, with a number of spring festivals taking place there, the number of clients booking tours to the continent has been low.
Clients are carefully considering whether to travel to Europe since the prices are set in euro instead of the dollar.
The European currency has strengthened from VND23,600 at the beginning of the year to VND24,800 recently.
With the greenback falling well below VND16,000, US tours are becoming very popular. The HCM City-based Hoan My travel agency has stopped bookings for tours departing in April despite doubling capacity by operating four instead of two monthly tours.
According to Hoan My, 85% of people booking tours to the US combine travelling with visiting relatives there.
The company’s tour to the US west coast is priced at US$2,250 and to the east coast $2,500.
Ben Thanh launches tours of northern Vietnam, Yunnan
The Ho Chi Minh City-based Ben Thanh Tourist has launched a 12-day tour of some northern provinces and China’s Yunnan Province.
From Ho Chi Minh City, guests will be flown to Hanoi where they will spend two days exploring the capital city and Halong Bay. They will then take a train from Hanoi to the border province of Lao Cai before entering China.
The next six days will be spent exploring the beautiful landscapes of Yunnan. Travellers will observe the day-to-day life of the Chinese in Kunming, the provincial capital, visit Kuniming Stone Forest, and the old town of Lijiang, a key commercial and strategic site.
The tour costs VND15.9mil (US$1,000) per person for groups of at least four.
(Source: Viet Nam News)
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