Diverse tours during Tet

Because of the rising number of Vietnamese nationals abroad returning to Vietnam, international arrivals to Vietnam to learn about the Tet culture of the Vietnamese and the Vietnamese travelling during the lunar New Year festival, travel firms have opened various kinds of attractive tours on the occasion

Foreigners going for a walk on Nha Trang beach

More domestic tours…

Saigontourist, with a view to meeting the high needs of tourists during the traditional New Year festival (the Year of the Pig), particularly about 140,000 Vietnamese nationals abroad (Viet Kieu) expected to come home this year, has organised 25 tours from the South to the North and from the North to the South together with other tours.

A group of tours for the Viet Kieu named “Integration Spring Colour” with such tours as “Tet with the Homeland,” “Colours of the Southern Rivers,” “The Legendary Central Highlands,” “Marvellous Ha Long Night,” “Sapa – Colours and Beauty of the Mountainous Area,” “From Saigon to the 17th Parallel of Latitude,” and “Saigon – Hue – Hanoi,” starting from lunar 23 December 2006 (February 10) to lunar 12 January 2007 (February 28).

Like other travel firms, Ben Thanh Tourist Corporation has just introduced a group of tours for the Tet, including “Graceful Colour of the Spring in Da Lat,” “Nha Trang in Spring Days,” “Blue Sea Nha Trang – Spring Comes to Da Lat,” and “Phan Thiet Welcomes New Spring,” to both southern and northern tourists and foreigners.

Travelling to the sea on Tet holidays is one of the top priorities of tourists. Sea travelling in Vietnam is very attractive. With the letter S-shaped coastline from the north to the south, the central sea is really beautiful with sunlight and wind and the northern sea is deeply blue. During the Tet, Ben Thanh Tourist opens a group of sea tours called “Beach Break” for domestic and foreign tourists, particularly the Viet Kieu.

These tours are linked with seaside resorts on extremely beautiful beaches and served with high quality services. Tourists find it easy and convenient to select destinations and suitable services in line with their demands. It’s up to tourists to choose short-time or long-time tours. For the short-time tour (one to two days), tourists can choose tours to Long Hai, Phan Thiet in Binh Thuan province. With a little bit longer-time tours, tourists can travel to Phu Quoc Island, Quy Nhon city and Da Nang city, from three to four days. If tourists have enough time to have a rest, they should choose combined tours: Phan Thiet – Nha Trang, and Da Nang – Hoi An (five to six days)

Foreigners touring the Old Quarter of Hanoi

Previously, almost all northern people rarely joined tours on Tet holiday. But now, when their living standards have been raised, the travelling demand during the Tet tends to rise quickly. Taking the chance, travel firms have introduced many attractive tours. Tours to the south by Saigontourist with the hope of creating much fun to tourists include “Ha Tien Landscapes and Fairy Land of Chau Doc,” “Visiting the Southernmost Land”, “Returning to the Tay Do – Can Tho city,” “Hanoi – Ha Long – Hoi An – Nha Trang – Da Lat.”

Tours to southern tourists and international tourists in northern Vietnam are also very diverse and rich. Tourists can join a travel programme named “Peach Fragrance in the Northern Land” of Saigontourist with such tours as “Pilgrimage to the Perfume Pagoda,” and “Coming Back to Old Capital Cities (Hanoi – Tam Coc – Dinh Le Temple).”

Saigontourist said, the firm has decided to increase more ten Tet tours for domestic and foreign tourists, raising the number of tours to Yunnan (China), tour to Chingay festival in Singapore and tour to Europe. So far, more than 6,000 Vietnamese nationals abroad and 5,000 Vietnamese people have booked Tet tours. The firm is expected to attract 17,000 tourists during the New Year festival, an increase of 10% against last year.

and tours abroad

In the last few years, big travel firms of Vietnam have also paid attention to opening outbound tours for the Vietnamese tourists during the Tet, particularly tourists from Ho Chi Minh City. When the demand of travelling abroad of the Vietnamese people rises quickly, the number of tours also rises.

The “Travelling abroad together with Saigontourist” with tours to Singapore, China, Hong Kong and Malaysia in East Asia or tours to enjoy the Vietnamese Tet with friends and relatives in the United States, Europe and Australia will also be organised.

Joining these tours, tourists have a chance to mix themselves with the Tet atmosphere of the native people, viewing roads and recreation centres decorated colourfully and trying their luck in the New Year in Hong Kong and Singapore. Tourists also have opportunities to view Beijing “blazing red” with lanterns, parallel sentences and paper paintings on every road and pretty houses, or join a street festival of Chingay Parade 0 Hi Fun@Chingay 2007 in Singapore.

The Chingay Parade dated the 19th century and has officially been held annually in Singapore since the lunar New Year of 1972. This is the time for the Singaporeans to show their multi-national culture through art programmes, carnivals, flower car procession, traditional dances, Samba dances and Hip Hop dances by the Chinese, Malaysian, British, American, Australian, Japanese and South Korean people, contributing to the spirit of unity and creativeness with the theme “Hi Fun@Chingay 2007.”

Since 2002 and 2003, the Singaporean Tourist Board has combined with Saigontourist to organise tours during the Chingay Parade to introduce cultural activities of Singapore to Vietnamese tourists. So far, Saigontourist is the only firm in Vietnam to regularly organise tours to Singapore in combination with joining the Chingay Parade.

(Source: Nhandan)