Day: April 10, 2024

Hanoi: While air travel becomes more expensive, the railway sector has worked to unlock its tourism potential to meet high travel demand during the upcoming Liberation of the South – National Reunification Day (April 30) and International Labour Day (May 1) holidays.

According to the Vietnam Railways Corporation (VNR), it is busy with arranging night trips to Da Lat city in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, providing visitors an opportunity to enjoy the splendour of the city of the thousands of flowers.

Before the official launch on April 14, free tickets are offered on the trips from April 11 – 13.

The DL11 train will leave Da Lat Station at 18:15 while DL12 departs from Trai Mat Station at 19:15, with free artichoke tea and wifi on board. Particularly, a cine dome that screens a railway documentary will be inaugurated at the Da Lat Station on April 14, bringing new experiences to visitors.

Earlier, a train route named ‘Central Heritage Connection’ linking Hue city in the central province of Th
ua Thien – Hue and Da Nang city was put into operation at the end of March.

During the about three hours of this train journey, tourists can contemplate the magnificent natural beauty along Hai Van Pass, dubbed ‘Thien ha de nhat hung quan’ (the world’s most marvelous wonder) and also among the 10 most beautiful drives in the world as selected by renowned US magazine Travel Leisure, with one side being Truong Son Mountain Range and the other the sea before reaching Da Nang, which boasts one of the six most beautiful beaches on the planet.

On the way back, from Da Nang to Hue, they can set foot in the former capital of Hue, which is home to various heritage sites.

In particular, riding either trips departing Hue for Da Nang or vice versa in the morning or the afternoon, tourists can enjoy the stunning sunrise or sunset scenes on Lang Co, one of the most beautiful bays in the world, and taste typical local delicacies.

The VNR said although the route was freshly operated, it has garner widespread interest fro
m both domestic and international visitors.

According to Chairman of the VNR Member Council Dang Sy Manh, the train on this route consists of five modern seating carriages and another for community activities, expected to be an impressive mobile check-in place for passengers. The train will be equipped with wifi in April.

At Da Nang and Hue Stations, there are VIP waiting rooms and automatic bicycle hire services.

The SE11/SE12 trains have been added to the Hanoi – HCM City route to serve growing travel demand during the summer peak period.

An array of promotional programmes has been rolled out, including discounts for round-trip fares and tickets for groups of passengers./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Hanoi: Vietnamese Ambassador to Hungary Nguyen Thi Bich Thao had a meeting with overseas Vietnamese (OV) and members of Truong Sa Club in Hungary on April 8 before two representatives of the community join a trip to Truong Sa and marine platforms of Vietnam in 2024.

The annual trip for OV delegates is held by the State Committee for OV Affairs and the Vietnam People’s Navy.

Ambassador Thao said she hopes the trip will bring memorable experience to participants, enhancing their awareness of national sovereignty over seas and islands and deepening their bonds with the homeland, thus spreading patriotism and love for national seas and island among Vietnamese community in Hungary.

Le Dinh Bau, and Luong Dinh Khoa, who are to join the Truong Sa trip, showed their gratitude to the Party and State for providing them with the opportunities to visit the homeland and their fellow countrymen in Truong Sa.

At the meeting, OVs in Hungary and members of the Truong Sa Club donated 3,000 EUR (3,255 USD) to the ‘the whole
nation for Truong Sa’ programme, which will be brought to Vietnam by Bau and Khoa during the trip.

The Truong Sa Club in Hungary was established in June 2023, gathering people who have joined trips to Truong Sa in different years, providing them with a venue to share their memories of Vietnamese seas and islands and experience from the trips./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

New Delhi: An increasing number of Indians are looking for solo travelling to countries like Vietnam, the UAE, Egypt, and Singapore, according to a report by online platform for visa applications Atlys.

The report is based on visa applications for summer travelling this year submitted on the platform, which has e-visa mandate for over 133 countries.

It shows that solo travellers represented about 65% of visa applications for the UAE, 60% for Egypt, 40% for Singapore and 45% for Vietnam.

Around 20% of visa applications for group tours were for the UAE, 30% for Egypt, 25% for Singapore, and 20% for Vietnam.

For Vietnam alone, most of the applications were from the cities of Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Quang Ninh: Quang Ninh aims to become an international tourism hub and a world leading destination by 2050 through establishing the brand of Ha Long Bay – Bai Tu Long Bay as a landscape paradise and harmonising the development of economic-social-environmental ecosystems, along with raising the quality of life of local residents to meet international standards.

Those are among important targets of the province’s tourism development scheme to 2030 with a vision to 2050, which is being finalised by the provincial People’s Committee.

Under the project, from now until 2030, Quang Ninh will continue to strengthen its role as a national tourism locomotive with tourism turned into a spearhead economic sector in connection with sustainable development of marine economy towards green growth. The province will strive to attract tourists all year round and become a destination not to be missed in Vietnam.

The province will focus on diversifying tourism products, expanding tourist market, promoting cooperation in touri
sm development, improving local capacity in state management and implementation of tourism development policies. Priority will be given to the development of high-quality tourism human resources and digital transformation in the field.

Quang Ninh will consistently follow the policy of sustainable and inclusive tourism development on the foundation of green growth. The province aims to develop tourism in a professional, quality and sustainable manner, and link tourism development with preserving and promoting national cultural values and identities. The province also envisions unique tourism products with high added-value in different types of tourism and the formation of national tourism sites.

This year, Quang Ninh expects to welcome 17 million visitors, including three million foreigners. To this end, it is rolling out such solutions as attracting tourists from Northeast Asia and China, Europe, the US, and developing new markets such as India, Middle East, Russia and Australia through promotion activities
.

The province will host 186 cultural and sporting events in 2024 to stimulate tourism, among them are many traditional events that have become trademarks of Quang Ninh such as H? Long Summer Tourism Week 2024, Bach Dang Traditional Festival, Quang Ninh Ethnic Culture Day, a culinary festival, a three-region circus gala, the OCOP summer 2024 fair, a national festival for music, the Quang Ninh Open golf tournament and the Ha Long Heritage Marathon. It also plans to offer 62 more new tourism products in 2024./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Hanoi: The military-run telecom service provider Viettel on April 10 inaugurated its data centre in Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park in Hanoi – one of the largest data centres in Vietnam so far.

The new centre has racks with a capacity of three times higher than the average in Vietnam. It meets the development trend of artificial intelligence (AI) with high-performance computer chips to increase computing ability.

The data centre holds many green certificates such as energy management standards, environmental impact management standards, and labour hygiene management standards. It is also the first data centre in Vietnam to commit to using renewable energy to meet 30% of electricity consumption.

Speaking at the inauguration, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung emphasised that investing in data centres is a new type of investment by telecommunications service providers to have new growth space. Data is the most important resource of the digital economy. A country’s future wealth is measured by d
ata.

Big data and big data processing will be the biggest industry, he said, adding that Viettel as well as other Vietnamese telecommunications service providers need to have a sound vision of a country’s data infrastructure, to turn Vietnam into a global digital hub.

Hung said that a safe and reliable data centre system with the highest security and the most advanced technology like Viettel’s Hoa Lac data centre will play an important role in protecting data sovereignty and personal data in Vietnam.

Viettel Chairman and General Director Maj. Gen. Tao Duc Thang said that to date, Viettel has had a total of 230,000 servers, 81,000 sq.m of floor space, 11,500 racks, 87MW of electricity – equivalent to a data centre of the world.

In the coming time, Viettel will continuously invest in data centres. It will invest an additional 10 trillion VND ( 400.88 million USD) to expand the scale to 17,000 racks by 2025, and 40 trillion VND for 34,000 racks by 2030.

Currently, all of Viettel’s data centres meet internat
ional standards TIA 942. In particular, the Hoa Lac centre is designed and implemented to ensure 5-layer physical security – the highest level so far. It can connect to all countries and five undersea fiber optic cable lines with five different directions. All operations of the data centre are monitored remotely all the time./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Hanoi: The upcoming National Reunification Day (April 30) and May Day (May 1) holidays are expected to be a ‘golden chance’ for travel firms to start a bustling summer tourism season.

This year, the holidays are expected to last for five days following the proposal of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, prompting travel service suppliers to design long tours with attractive promotion policies.

Saigontourist has offered more than 200 domestic and foreign tours that are expected to attract more than 110,000 visitors. A representative from the firm said that many tours have been fully booked, reaching 80% of its plan.

Meanwhile, STtourist has provided 63 summer tours with the number of tourists for each tour limited at 20 to ensure service quality.

The Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Festival 2024 (from April 4-7) and the Vietnam International Travel Mart slated for April 11-14 in Hanoi are likely to ‘heat up’ the tourism industry on the thresholds of the long holidays.

According to insiders, the
recent domestic air fare hikes have prompted tourists to turn to outbound tours, especially those to nearby destinations such as Thailand, Singapore, China and the Republic of Korea.

Many experts held that with the completion of many sections in the North-South Expressway, the flexible combination of many means of transportation in a tour will help optimise travel cost and increase tourists’ experiences.

This year’s summer is likely to continue to see a boom in self-sufficient travel, especially in the domestic market thanks to the increasing car owning trend. To meet this group of tourists’ demand, many travel firms have offer room and entertainment combos.

Homestays are also a popular choice for tourist in this summer, with high booking rates seen in destination of Cat Ba, Van Don, Sam Son, Sa Pa in the north and Vung Tau and Mui Ne in the south.

The railway sector has also braced for the peak tourism season by increasing trains and offering promotions for various priority groups.

Meanwhile, many coast
al localities have planned sea tourism festival to lure visitors in the holidays./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency