Lookatvietnam – The country’s major tourist destinations were still crowded with revelers during the week-long Tet holidays despite insignificant falls in visitor numbers sparked by the economic downturn.

Bui Xuan Luong, head of the tourism division of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Department of Khanh Hoa Province, which is home to the central seaside resort town of Nha Trang, told the Daily on the phone that the province received some 82,000 visitors during the first seven days of the Lunar New Year, a slight 2% lower than last Tet.

The number of international tourist arrivals in the province fell a mere 3% to 16,600, Luong said.

He said the sudden rise in tourist arrivals during Tet caused room rates and fees for services to increase 20% to 30% in Nha Trang, where there are some 9,500 guest rooms of different standards.

Favorite attractions in the province this year welcomed some 388,000 Tet revelers this year, some 12,000 fewer than last year, he added.

Despite a slight decline in the number of guests, the province reported the same revenue from tourism as last year, at VND95.5 billion.

Luong said room occupancy at hotels had began gradually declining as travelers were coming back to work.

Another destination, the Central Highlands resort town of Dalat, attracted thousands of visitors who wanted to enjoy cool weather in this city.

Nguyen Thi Nguyen, vice chairwoman of Dalat City, who is in charge of the tourism sector, told the Daily on the phone that some 79,000 revelers came to the city during the seven days of Tet, up some 20% from last year.

Thanks to a promotion program, room rates were stable and not higher than last year, she said.

As usual, the famous attractions such as Prenn Waterfall, Golden Valley, Datanla Waterfalls, the city’s flower garden lured most revelers.

A resident of the city said this year there were a lot of visitors using their vehicles such as cars and motorbikes and thus causing traffic jams on a number of streets as often seen in HCMC.

* Saigontourist Travel Service Company will receive another five-star cruise ship, Delphin Voyager, which will visit Vietnam from February 4 to 10.

Delphin Voyager, which is carrying 500 German travelers and crewmembers, will dock at Saigon Port in HCMC and will stay there for several days for the international visitors to explore the city and neighboring regions.

Vo Anh Tai, the company’s director, said that for the first time such a cruise ship like Delphin Voyager had chosen HCMC as a destination of embarkation or disembarkation, where some passengers will end their trip by disembarking from the ship and come back to their countries by plane or other means of transport, and new passengers can board the ship.

Tai said cruise ship operators had chosen other destinations such as Singapore and Hong Kong for disembarkation because of poor facilities in HCMC, such as luxury hotel room shortages, and lack of direct flights from Europe and North America, among others. However, they have decided to choose HCMC as a destination this year for the city’s infrastructure and tourist services have improved.

As scheduled, the German travelers will have four days discovering the city. Some 210 of them will tour part of the Mekong Delta while a smaller group will visit Binh Quoi Resort in HCMC’s Binh Thanh District, then watch a performance featuring a traditional Vietnamese wedding ceremony.

The Delphin Voyager will leave HCMC for Cai Lan Port where the travelers will tour Hạ Long Bay and the capital city of Hanoi before heading for Hong Kong, according to the company.

Saigontourist is arranging the visit by another cruise ship, Costa Allegra, which will stop by HCMC, Danang and Halong between February 1 and 19. There will be some 2,500 passengers from Hong Kong and China on board the vessel.

The company expects its business performance to improve given a good start in the first month of the lunar year.

The company early last week arranged two trips by the Costa Allegra which visited Danang and Halong with some 1,600 passengers coming from Hong Kong and China. Earlier, the five-star cruise ship Columbus took 450 German travelers to HCMC, Nha Trang and Danang.

Saigontourist said it had received some 6,000 sea travelers by early February, a 30% improvement from the same period last year.

VietNamNet/SGT