HCM
City operators offer discount tours to compensate for airfares

Travel
firms in HCM City have launched budget tours to attract travellers since higher
airfares and other expenses have hit the number of travellers.

Tour costs have
increased by 15-25 per cent because of a 20 per cent hike in airfares besides
significantly higher hotel, cooking, and service costs.

It now costs
VND970,000 for a two-day tour to Phan Thiet, VND700,000 to Vung Tau, and VND5.2
million-5.7 million to Hue city – Quang Binh – Da Nang.

A six-day tour to Ha
Noi costs VND10 million.

Tran The Dung, deputy
director of The He Tre Travel Firm, said most travellers in HCM City now prefer
two – or three-day tours to Phan Thiet, Ninh Chu, and Vung Tau to save money
unlike in previous summers when companies and others opted for longer tours to
Hue or Ha Noi for their employees.

Las Vegas firm
invests in luxury intergrated resort on beachfront

Canadian real estate
company Asian Coast Development Ltd, which is currently developing Viet Nam’s
first large integrated resort, the beachfront Ho Tram Strip in Ba Ria-Vung Tau,
has sold a 26 per cent stake for US$95 million to Las Vegas, US-based Pinnacle
Entertainment.

The deal marks
Pinnacle’s entry into the rapidly growing “Asian gaming market”, the casino
operator said last week.

The first resort
planned in Ho Tram Strip, the MGM Grand Ho Tram, is under construction and
likely to open in 2013. It will be managed by MGM Hospitality, a subsidiary of
MGM Resorts International.

Japanese
tourists shrug off the effects of recent disasters

Japanese tourist
arrivals are expected to rise 6.5 per cent year on year in May despite worries
about a slump due to the disaster in Japan in March.

The Viet Nam National
Administration for Tourism estimated the number of Japanese visitors in May, the
start of the low season, at 204,000.

APEX Travel Co, a tour
operator serving Japanese tourists, has asked authorities to allow Japanese
tourists to stay in Viet Nam for up to 60 days instead of the current 15 without
an entry visa.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News