VietNamNet Bridge – Binh Thuan province is trying to attract more travelers and upgrade the infrastructure items in the “Russian village” of Mui Ne. Meanwhile, businessmen and service providers are taking time to learn Russian in the four-month low season of receiving Russian travelers.

Le Van Nghia, Chair of Nhat Minh Company, who lived in Russia for nearly 30 years, once led a delegation of representatives of 43 Russian enterprises, press and tourism agencies to Vietnam to learn about the country in 2005.

The bridges that connects Russian travelers with Vietnam

After visiting Hanoi, Ha Long Bay, Nha Trang, Phu Quoc Island and HCM City, finally, Ham Tien–Mui Ne was chosen for its long, beautiful, sunny and windy seaside and wild beauty. Especially since there are no high rise buildings and hotels, and it is easy to travel further to Da Lat, Nha Trang, Ba Ria-Vung Tau or HCM City from Ham Tien–Mui Ne.

The Russian travelers are mostly from Moscow, Novosibirsk to HCM City, or from Vladivostor and Khabarovsk to Cam Ranh, and then they gather in Ham Tien – Mui Ne. Besides Vietnam Airlines and Aeroflot, other airlines, including Transaero Airlines, Sibiry Airline S7 and Vladivostor Air also provide weekly flights from Russia to Vietnam.

Nghia said that Ukraine airlines will also provide flights to Vietnam in the future; therefore, Vietnam will have more Russian travelers from November. Nghia has published books about Vietnam in the Russian language which have been delivered to travelers. He has also supporting tourism service providers to train the Russian language to their staff.

There is a well-known Russian person in the Russian Village, who has been acting as the advisor to Russian fellow countrymen – travelers. He is now the owner of Boctoc restaurant, called the bear restaurant, because it has two stone bears standing at the entrance of the restaurant.

Igor has been running the restaurant for three years. The special thing of the restaurant is that not Russian, but Vietnamese meals have been mainly served at the restaurant. It is because Igor wants to introduce Vietnam to Russian travelers.

Attracting more travelers to Russian village

According to Igor, Russian people now want to change the tourism destinations after they traveled to Thailand, Egypt or Turkey, and they have found out that Vietnam is really attractive. Therefore, he believes the number of Russian travelers to Vietnam will increase further in the time to come. Russians tend to regularly return to the places which satisfy them. Therefore, he said, Vietnam should try to offer high quality products with reasonable prices, upgrade the tourism environment. Especially Russian travelers note that rubbish is the biggest problem there.

Resort managers and guest house owners agree with Igor. Russian travelers like going shopping at markets, but sometimes they feel unsatisfactory with too much rubbish at the market entrances.

Nghia said that Mui Ne is still lacking many kinds of services. The accommodation services are good, but night clubs and healthcare centers are not good enough. Russian travelers always go in families with members of different generations. Therefore, Nghia suggested that it is necessary to think about providing services to serve old people and children.

Source: SGTT