#Vietnam - Bells toll as Hanoi, Nha Trang named top honeymoon destinations

Hanoi and beach town Nha Trang have been listed among the top 10 honeymoon destinations by The Travel, a leading travel site of Canada, for newlyweds visiting Asia.
Vietnam’s capital ranked second while Nha Trang in central Khanh Hoa Province rounded off the top 10 list, released by the newspaper on Tuesday.

The Travel describes Hanoi as a "great place for a romantic trip, experiencing Vietnamese culture, learning about local history, and savoring delicious food."

The "thousands of years old" city boasts significant historical and cultural values that provide "everything a happy couple on honeymoon could ask for, from ancient temples to museums and shopping centers," it wrote.

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 Nha Trang is described as an ideal destination for newlyweds with "enthralling beaches, ancient temples, and remnants of the ancient Champa Kingdom."

Known for its long stretches of beautiful beaches and scuba diving, the town has been attracting large numbers of foreign tourists, especially Chinese and Russians in recent years.

El Nido on Palawan Island in the Philippines topped the list. The top 10 also features Thailand’s Chiang Mai, Indonesia’s Bali, Singapore, Japan’s Kyoto, Luang Prabang in Laos.

Hanoi made Time magazine’s list of ‘best destinations for every type of traveler’ in December last year.

The city, which hosted the historic second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in February, received 6 million foreign tourists in the first 11 months of this year, up 12 percent year-on-year.

Coastal Nha Trang in April ranked third among the top five Southeast Asian beach destinations favored by Chinese tourists in 2018, according to a report by China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism. China is Vietnam's top tourism feeder market.

 

VN Express

#Vietnam emerges top Asia-Pacific travel choice for Russians

Russian traveling to the Asia-Pacific region heavily favor Vietnam and neighbor Thailand, says global travel analysis firm ForwardKeys.

From May 2018 to April 2019, Russian arrivals to the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region rose 54.5 percent, far outstripping the 3.8 percent growth of international arrivals to the region, according to ForwardKeys data.

The huge spike in Russian travelers has been prompted by a doubling of direct flights from Russia to Asian tourist destinations, mainly in Vietnam and Thailand, with air seat capacity increasing by 38 percent overall.

The ForwardKeys survey shows Vietnam saw the highest increase in Russian market seat capacity at 153 percent, followed by Thailand and the Maldives, which saw a growth of 125 percent and 58 percent respectively. South Korea and India also saw seat capacity rising by more than 30 percent.

Vietnam has emerged as a favorite destination for Russian holiday-goers in recent years and is expected to surpass its neighbor Thailand, a favored Russian haunt for a long time.

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Market observers say the launch of direct air connections from multiple secondary and tertiary cities in Russia to Vietnam's popular beach towns have propped up the Russian tourism boom.

Russia's S7 Airlines last year launched a direct flight connecting Irkutsk City with Cam Ranh, an hour south of its much busier sister Nha Trang in the central province of Khanh Hoa, while Vladivostok Air had begun operating daily flights from major cities of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk to Vietnam's Cam Ranh Bay even earlier.

Khanh Hoa, home to the famous beach town of Nha Trang, has been much loved by Russian tourists, accounting for one fifth of total foreign arrivals. Last year, Russian tourist arrivals to Khanh Hoa reached nearly 400,000, up 1.5 percent year-on-year, making it the second biggest feeder market for local tourism after China.

"Vietnam is certainly going through a tremendous growth in demand from the Russian market," global media company Skift quoted Stephan Roemer, CEO of Diethelm Travel Group, as saying.

Russia is the sixth largest source market for Vietnam’s tourism, with mainland China topping the list, followed by South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the U.S.

Vietnam received a record high of 606,000 Russians last year, accounting for 4 percent of total foreign tourist arrivals.

Apart from visa exemptions for tourists from the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Vietnam offers 15-day visa exemptions for visitors from the U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Belarus.

Russian tourists spend an average of $1,600 per stay in Vietnam while the average for foreign visitors overall is $900, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.

The country welcomed 7.3 million arrivals during January-May, up 8.8 percent from a year ago, putting the it on track to meet its annual target of receiving 18 million foreigners this year, according to the General Statistics Office.

With the changes to the visa policies, the tourism industry hopes to get 17-20 million foreign visitors by 2020 and revenues of $35 billion a year, contributing 10 percent to the country’s GDP compared to 7.5 percent last year.

Last year a record 15.4 million visitors came to the country, a whopping 20 percent increase from 2017.

Many travel agencies have said that Vietnam should further relax its visa policies and simplify procedures to attract high spending tourists from Japan, North America, Northern Europe, China and South Korea.

They have called for the current 15-day visa exemption extended to 30 days.

Source - VN EXPRESS