First
HCM City river tour launched

The first river tour
of HCM City will begin tomorrow,
Jan 22, taking tourists from Bach Dang
Wharf in District 1 to the Painter Village in District 7. This is part of the
city’s effort to to diversify tourism products.

The tour is one of
several river tours on the Sai Gon River that the city tourism authority has
surveyed recently. Last year, the city’s tourism department and travel agencies
made fact-finding trips up the Sai Gon River to Dong Nai Province. The tourism
department was also asked to develop river tours from HCM City to neighbouring
provinces, the Mekong provinces of An Giang and Cambodia.

Spring Fair in
Ha Noi

Spring Fair 2011
featuring 900 pavilions with products of 600 enterprises will open between
January 20 and 31 at the Viet Nam Exhibition and Fair Centre, 148 Giang Vo
Street.

The fair will include
daily goods for Tet such as confectionaries. cooking, beverage, garments and
textiles, jewellery, cosmetics, footwear, ornaments and household utensils as
well as specialties such as ruou can (wine drunk from bamboo pipes from a jar)
from Hoa Binh, Nam Roi pomelo, Bo Ha orange, Ha Giang tea and Hai Hau rice.
Ceramics and handicraft products from across the country will also be exhibited.

Saigontourist
welcomes cruise liner

Saigontourist Travel
Service received 300 cruise passengers, most of them from Australia, on board
the Portugal’s Princess Daphne cruise ship during their two-day tour of HCM
City-Cu Chi-My Tho. This was the first time Princess Daphne came to Viet Nam.

After docking at Sai
Gon Port, the visitors travelled to HCM City, Cu Chi tunnels and My Tho city in
the Mekong province of Tien Giang. They attended entertainment activities and
saw the daily life of local people through shopping at Ben Thanh Market,
watching puppet shows, visiting Nam Son lacquer workshop and enjoying the
cuisine of the Mekong Delta.

In 2010, Saigontourist
received more than 60,000 visitors from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and
Spain. The company also promotes cruise tourism among travellers in Viet Nam.

Air Mekong
resumes Da Nang flights

Private carrier Air
Mekong announced its resumption of scheduled services to Da Nang from January
20. The resumption of the service aims to provide more seats during the peak
season for domestic air travel. Air Mekong had to suspend its Da Nang service in
early December, about two weeks after the carrier started this service, because
of low seating capacity on its nine-seat Bombardier CRJ-900 aircraft.

The carrier has also
decided to open two daily flights between HCM City and Buon Ma Thuot and Pleiku
from January 26.

Flower festival
in District 7

Phu My Hung Flower
Festival 2011 will be opened on January 26 at The Crescent Zone in Phu My Hung
urban area in HCM City’s District 7, presentingVietnamese craft of growing
flowers. The week-long festival is expected to attract more than 500 enterprises
displaying flowers, fruits and Tet products.

One of the highlights
of the event is the flower contest Hoa Dong Co Noi (Country Flowers and Grass)
for growers and gardeners to enter. The festival also includes a flower-garland
releasing festival to pray for happiness and good luck by the lake of The
Crescent Zone.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News