Nov
20
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Trekking to highlands, sleeping in trees
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VietNamNet Bridge – Around 15 kilometers from Dalat City, Nui Voi-Da Tien Tourist Area in my opinion is a paradise for travelers, as it is unlike any tourist areas in the city of mist and pine trees.
Romantic scenery in Da Tien-Thac Voi Tourist Area in Dalat City.
I departed from the road from Prenn Pass through Truc Lam Zen Monastery, riding around Tuyen Lam Lake then upon the area. The windy and winding road is really interesting to conquer.
‘Da Tien’ (fairy rock) is two rocks in the shape of two male fairies playing chess. The greenness of the pine forest and grass-yards are dotted with some colorful wild flowers.
Tourists can hire a boat to take a cruise around the lake under the sunset to enjoy the romance and calmness of nature. To relax and put fun at the top of your agenda, travelers can hire a fishing rod at VND30,000 with bait to catch some fish for dinner. For others who want to explore the forest and winding roads, they can hire an elephant at VND30,0000 per hour.
Tourists can stay overnight at a tree-house halfway up a giant tree.
After that you can enjoy some specialties in some long stilt traditional houses of Ede people with gong shows or chat with K’Ho people around the fire. All will make you ignore the darkness coming over the misty city and the chill of the wind.
The amazing thing is that tourists will be taken to a little wooden tree-house halfway up a giant tree to sleep in overnight.
You might be a little apprehensive at first but it does have a toilet and bathroom. Lying in the house like a bird cage you will hear the whistles from the wind through the leaves and buzz of insects.
Early morning when you are awakened by the twitters of birds, you should take a visit to Voi Waterfall and stroll around the village to explore more of the ethnic culture there.
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Nov
20
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In the process of developing tourism industry
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VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam has been opening its doors to receive foreign tourists for the last 20 years. However, it remains unprofessional in persuading foreign travelers to spend their money in Vietnam.
Foreign travelers don’t spend big money in Vietnam
Cruise travelers have been well-known as high income clients who are ready to spend big money on shopping at the destination points. However, the travelers do not have many reasons to spend money in Vietnam because of the unprofessional way of organizing sales campaigns.
Though the service fees have been increasing steadily year after year, the money spent by foreign travelers to Vietnam has been increasing very slightly. Meanwhile, if not counting the price spiral, the spending of foreign travelers in Vietnam has decreased.
Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon has quoted the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) as saying that foreign travelers stayed in Vietnam for 12 days in 2011 on average, the same with the statistics released two years before. During that time, a traveler spent 1268.4 dollars, or 105 dollars per day.
Thanh Nien has reported that when the five star cruise ship Voyager of the Seas, which carried 4000 travelers, docked at the SP-PSA international port some days ago, a lot of travelers decided to stay in the ship instead of going visiting HCM City and Vung Tau City as scheduled by the tour organizer.
The travelers turned out to be lucky with their decisions. It was a thorny itinerary to go from the port to HCM City, even though the distance between the two points was not long.
Highway No. 51 was in bad conditions, since it rained heavily some days ago, the coaches carrying travelers could go very slowly. The situation was even worse on the Hanoi Highway, and so was on the way from Suoi Tien to the HCM City center.
It took the travelers six hours to come to HCM City and return to the ship. As a result, the duration for them to visit HCM City was shortened to two hours, which was not enough for them to do the sightseeing and shopping.
In fact, travelers could buy souvenirs on the areas nearly the ship docking places. However, these were just the kiosks set up temporarily by professional vendors. Though they were called “kiosks,” they were just the tents made of canvas which just could help partially avoid the heat from the sun.
Here, except for some “special products” which were hung on the ropes, other products were put together in piles. Meanwhile, the salesmen here were all wearing protective masks. All of that raised doubts about the salesmen and the products available.
The strange decisions by management agencies
Phan Dinh Hue, Director of Vong Tron Viet travel firm, said on Thanh Nien that the unprofessionalism can be seen also in the way Vietnam runs marketing and advertisement campaigns to promote Vietnam tourism.
Despite the limited budget for tourism promotion, Vietnam still keeps the ambitious idea of attracting tourists from all markets. In 2012, the number of travelers from far market decreases dramatically because tourists don’t want to spend big money on air tickets in the current difficult period.
However, Vietnam still spends big money to participate the tourism trade fairs in the markets. Meanwhile, it overlooks the nearby markets with potential growth.
While the tourism industry faces big difficulties in the global economic crisis which has forced travel firms to slash tour fees to attract more travelers, the Quang Ninh provincial authorities have decided to raise the ship service fee for nearly 100 percent, commencing from the fourth quarter of 2012.
Prior to that, the provincial authorities also decided to raise the excursion fee at the Ha Long Bay.
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Nov
20
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New appearance of ethnic wellbeing crucial
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VietNamNet Bridge – The Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) provinces should focus on improving the lives of their ethnic minority communities as a crucial step to reinvigorating the faltering tourism sector in the region, experts say.
Foreign travellers visit the home of an E De ethnic family
in Lak District, Dak Lak Province.
Thriving ethnic minority communities are essential to preserving and developing the region's unique cultural diversity, they added.
Other challenges that need to be tackled urgently to revive tourism in the region include extensive deforestation, climate change impacts and the loss of intangible cultural treasures.
Despite boasting great natural beauty and cultural diversity, tourism growth in the region only grew by 12 per cent annually in the 2001-10 period.
The number of tourists to the region has not increased significantly during the past 10 years, and has even dropped in several years, Sai Gon Giai Phong reported on Saturday.
It quoted Associate Professor Truong Quoc Binh of the Viet Nam Art and Culture Institute, a member of the National Culture Heritage Committee, as saying the Central Highlands provinces must work together to preserve all their traditional values and restore their natural treasures to ensure sustainable socio-economic development.
Other experts also said the region needed closer linkages and co-operation among its provinces to revive its tourism sector.
Dr. Le Van Minh of the Institute of Tourism Research and Development said this would play a vital role in exploiting each province's tourism potential. It would help develop diverse, high-quality tourism products, thus enhancing the region's tourism competitiveness, he said.
Vu Van Tu, director of Lam Dong Province's Department of Tourism, Trading and Investment Promotion, said the Central Highlands region had great potential to develop eco-tourism.
Each province in the region had unique and special features, therefore, all the provinces needed to co-operate and create a "tourism product chain that has high cultural values," Tu said. Lam Dong has worked with other localities like the coastal south-central region, HCM City and other Central Highlands provinces to boost tourism, but the linkages we re still not strong enough to fully tap the potential, he added.
The Central Highlands region comprises five provinces: Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Dak Lak, Dak Nong and Lam Dong.
These provinces are home to more than 40 ethnic minority communities, making the region a treasure house of cultural diversity, which coupled with its abundant natural attractions, presents great tourism potential.
The region boasts numerous picturesque ponds, lakes and waterfalls, primeval forests and national parks as well as favourable weather all year round.
It also has a number of ancient villages where ethnic minority people like K'Ho, E De, Jarai, Bahnar, M'Nong and others reside.
The region's Gong culture has already been recognised by the UNESCO as a world intangible culture heritage.
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Gaint Cham temple of Po Nagar
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20/11/2012 08:26:06
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Welcome HCM - Spanish cultural week
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20/11/2012 08:16:30
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Vietnamese devotional objects in Thai Binh province has been restored
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20/11/2012 08:13:00
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VIB funds Vietnam Airlines for new Airbus A321 aircrafts
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20/11/2012 08:10:00
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Hue Imperial Citadel will be restored
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19/11/2012 08:55:21
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VIB funds Vietnam Airlines for Airbus A321 aircrafts
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19/11/2012 08:50:51
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Halong week aims at European market
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19/11/2012 08:37:43
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Ha long week aims at European market
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19/11/2012 08:34:11
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lRussia to opend flights to Cam Ranh for the first time
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19/11/2012 08:23:15
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