HCM City will offer a new tour to a painting village along the Sai Gon River in District 2 in September and inaugurate the Sai Gon-Cu Chi-Binh Duong route as part of its plan to develop riverside tourism over the next ten years.
The city has carried out a survey along the Sai Gon River to develop its 2011-20 riverside tourism plans.
At present, some travel firms provide short-distance riverside tours, like the Ben Nghe-Nha Be and Bach Dang-Binh Quoi routes, with six floating restaurants and three yachts.
Medium-distance boat tours on offer include the Sai Gon-Dong Nai, Sai Gon-Binh Duong and Bach Dang-Cu Chi routes while long-distance boat tours run from HCM City to a few Mekong Delta provinces, as well as Phnom Penh and Shihanoukville in Cambodia.
Ha Noi prepares for craft week
The Ha Noi Craft and Fine Arts Week 2010 will take place from August 4-9 with the participation of more than 10 enterprises and artisans showcasing seven product categories. Displaying elegant and sophiscated products made by artisans, companies and firms in the capital city, the event aims to boost export of handicraft items and promote the traditional culture of craft villages around Ha Noi.
War Remnants Museum in top 10
The War Remnants Museum was voted one of 10 Most Popular HCM City tourist attractions by local and foreign visitors in the HCM City-100 Excitements programme launched by the municipal Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism.
Nearly 170,000 foreign visitors, mostly from Algeria, Slovakia, Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Australia, the UK, the US, Germany, and Denmark, were welcomed by the museum in the first half of 2010.
The museum, which opened in September 1975, displays shocking evidence of atrocities committed by the foreign aggressors during the wars of national liberation. Exhibits include a collection of American weapons; models of the notorious tiger cages where Vietnamese revolutionaries were kept; photographs on the impacts of Agent Orange and other chemical weapons like napalm and phosphorus bombs used during the American War.
Dai Nam Tourist Park gets upgrade
More than VND3 trillion (US$150 million) will be invested in the second phase of Dai Nam Tourist Park to build miniatures of Viet Nam and the world, Huynh Uy Dung, general director of the Dai Nam JSC, has said.
The tourist park, located on over 450ha in the town of Thu Dau Mot, Binh Duong Province, about 45 minutes from HCM City, received more than 3.5 million visitors last year and is expected to attract over 5 million in 2010.
Tourism ad to be shown on CNN
International broadcaster CNN will broadcast a video clip advertising Vietnamese tourism later this year. The clip, which cost VND5.3 billion (US$277,000) to broadcast on CNN, will air in the third or fourth quarter as part of a $2.1 million tourism promotion programme for 2010. This will be Viet Nam's third advertising campaign on CNN.
In 2007, for the first time, a 30-second clip on Vietnamese tourist destinations aired on CNN for $290,000. Broadcast twice daily on CNN Asia for three months, it showed montages from Ha Long Bay, HCM City, Hoi An, and Hue. — VNS
