Hotels ready for Asian Indoor Games’ guests, athletes; Ooc Om Boc fest gets going in Soc Trang Province; Russian tourists arrive on chartered flights

All 45 hotels across the country designated for accommodating athletes and guests at the Asian Indoor Games III are well prepared for the regional sports event.

According to the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism, 15 hotels in HCM City would cater to the event, while the remaining 30 are all in the north, including 18 hotels in Ha Noi, five in Hai Phong, three in Hai Duong, two in Bac Ninh and one in Quang Ninh. The Hanoi Daewoo Hotel and Rex Hotel in HCM City are the official hotels to serve officials, VIP guests and delegation leaders.

Ooc Om Boc fest gets going in Soc Trang Province

The Ooc Om Boc Festival, an annual event of the Khmer people in the Mekong Delta, opened earlier this week with a trade and tourism fare at the Ho Nuoc Ngot Park in Soc Trang Province.

This year’s festival, which will run until November 2, includes a photo exhibition on Viet Nam’s ethnic groups, and sports, cooking and fine arts performances. A boat race on November 1 and 2 will be the highlight of the festival. Ten female and 30 male teams are participating in the boat race.

Russian tourists arrive on chartered flights

Lanta-An Travel welcomed 116 Russian tourists on a chartered flight yesterday as part of the joint-venture travel company’s programme to receive dozens of such arrivals over the next few months. The chartered flight flew from Moscow to HCM City before the well-to-do Russian tourists were transferred to Phan Thiet.

Along with flights from Moscow, Lanta-An Travel will receive more such flights from the city of Novosibirsk this season. The company will receive Russian tourists on 31 chartered flights during the peak season, from the end of October until late March. Each flight will bring around 120 to 150 travellers.

Investors interested in Phu Quoc Island casino

The provincial authority of Kien Giang has unveiled a plan to build a casino on 100ha of land on Phu Quoc Island. They said more than ten investors are bidding for the project, which is part of the province’s plan to boost tourism facilities on the island off the coast of the Mekong Delta. With its 150km long coastline, Phu Quoc aims to become a high class resort island with the capacity to accommodate 3 million annual tourists by 2020, according to a plan approved by the government last year.

The casino plan was unveiled amidst concerns many Vietnamese tourists visit casinos in other Southeast Asian countries, causing serious revenue losses.

White Horse Mountain to open cable car service

A plan to build a 4,000m long cable car system for getting to the top of Bach Ma (White Horse) Mountain, proposed by the Song Da-Thang Long Co has been approved by the Thua Thien-Hue city authorities.

Upon completion, the cable cars will serve tourists at the Bach Ma National Park in the province’s Phu Loc District, around 700km south of Ha Noi and 1,000km north of HCM City. Currently, the 20km path up the mountain is narrow and vulnerable to landslides.

The national park is the heart of a vast green forest running from the East Sea to the border with Laos, endowed with 2,147 flora and 1,493 fauna species, of which 27 plant varieties and 66 animals are listed in Viet Nam’s Red Book of endangered species.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News