More flights take international tourists to central Vietnam

Published: 08:32 Thursday - July 12, 2012

Some charter and regular flights opened this month will take foreign tourists to airports in Danang City and Khanh Hoa Province as the central region’s tourism is becoming more appealing to foreigners.

Foreign tourists at Danang Airport.

Regarding charter flights, Danang is the busiest place. This city started to welcome Chinese travelers from Hangzhou on charter flights last Monday.

Moreover, the Kunming-Danang charter flight will be launched on Thursday, raising the number of charter flights flying to Danang to five, mainly from Chinese- and Russian-speaking cities.

Tran Chi Cuong from the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism in Danang said that travel agencies and air carriers in Hong Kong were also eyeing the city’s tourism. Cathay Pacific Airways has planned to fly to Danang, perhaps with charter flights at first and regular flights later on, he added.

Thai Airways has the same plan. A representative of this air carrier said Danang would be its third destination in Vietnam after HCMC and Hanoi.

Meanwhile, Korean Air will fly to Cam Ranh Airport in Khanh Hoa Province with two flights a week beginning this Thursday. In addition, the number of charter flights from Russia to Khanh Hoa will also be increased by three or five from six flights per week like currently.

According to the Tourism Promotion Center in Khanh Hoa, the province will continue to conduct promotion activities in the hope of receiving flights from Singapore and Malaysia late this year.

Explaining for the attraction of coastal provinces, many travel firms said that these provinces had beautiful beaches, and accommodation facilities meeting international standards are being developed rapidly.

However, the tourism industry still has many things to do, from promoting to creating better products and services to attract a bigger number of tourists. If so, there will be more regular flights.

“Having charter flights is a good start for Vietnam tourism, but such flights cannot create a stable tourist supply. Nevertheless, the tourism industry needs to make use of opportunities to attract tourists and have new regular flights if wanting to obtain more high growth,” said Cao Tri Dung, director of Vitours Co. in Danang city.