Rail fares to be discounted after summer peak

Rail fares to be discounted after summer peak

Hanoi Railway Passenger Transport and Saigon Railway Passenger Transport Companies have decided to offer discounts of up to 50% for tickets on the north-south Thong Nhat train after the 2015 summer peak.

Accordingly, Hanoi Railway Passenger Transport will offer 3-12% discounts from September 6 to December 31 on tickets for each type of marked train and travelling time, including the SE1/2 train from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, the SE5/6 Hanoi-Da Nang train, and the NA1/2 Hanoi-Vinh train.

Passengers, who travel on the SE1/2 and SE5/6 during that period and buy tickets 60 days or more before the departure, will enjoy a 50% discount on the normal rate. The ticket costs will be reduced by 30% if they are purchased30-59 days before departure. The special offer is for independent passengers only and distances of 1,300km or more.

Passengers choosing the SE19/20 and NA1/2 for travel during that period can buy discounted tickets for each type of carriage. A 30% discount will be offered for tickets on hard seat carriages without air conditioning. For hard seats without air conditioning on SE19/20 trains, prioritised tickets will be applied to transport distances of 200km or more. The promotion applies to passengers purchasing individual tickets only.

Saigon Railway Passenger Transport provides promotions for passengers traveling on Thong Nhat SE3/SE4, SE7/SE8, and TN1/TN2 trains. Specifically, passengers buying tickets prior to their departure on the above trains from September 6 to December 31 will be discounted according to two levels: 50% discount for tickets bought 60-days before the departure and 30% for tickets purchased 30-59 days before departure. The promotion only applies to individual tickets with transport distances of 1,300km or more.

Passengers, who buy discounted tickets 60-days or more prior to their departure, are not allowed to return or change their tickets. Those who buy tickets 30-59 days before their departure will be charged 50% of the fee if they want to return or change their tickets.

Can Tho – Bangkok air route launched

An air route connecting the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho and Thai capital city Bangkok was launched on July 21.

Vietravel, a local travel agency, will use chartered flights operated by Thai Vietjet Air to fly passengers from Can Tho city and Mekong Delta provinces to Thailand.

There is one flight every five days with ticket prices starting at 2.7 million VND (123 USD) for a one-way ticket.

The launch of the route will save time for the city citizens and helps Can Tho promote its tourism to Thai tourists.

The Can Tho – Da Lat air route was also previously opened.

The Can Tho International Airport served 225,000 passengers in the first half of 2015, up 72 percent, but only a small fraction of its design capacity of 3 million passengers a year.-

Tours to RoK rebooted after MERS-CoV

The Republic of Korea (RoK) General Department of Tourism in conjunction with travel agencies in Hanoi organised a tourism promotion programme in Hanoi on July 21 as part of efforts to increase the number of tourists to the RoK after the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) ravaged the country.

According to representatives from the General Department, the RoK is an attractive destination for Vietnamese travellers. However, after the MERS-CoV outbreak in the country, the number of Vietnamese visitors to the RoK dropped remarkably. In June alone, the figure reduced about 19 percent.

The department has set a target of attracting about 200,000 Vietnamese visitors in 2015.

No MERS-CoV new infections or fatalities were reported in the RoK during the last 20 days, the department said, adding that the RoK government plans to officially announce the disease’s eradication in the country.

Representatives from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism said the RoK has made every effort to draw arrivals to the country such as providing free entry to a number of tourism sites and applying insurance for international tourists visiting the RoK during the period from the end of June to the end of September.

A tourism promotion programme was also launched from July 10 to September 21 to encourage visitors to visit the RoK this summer.

Travel agencies in Hanoi are running promotional programmes to attract tourists to the RoK.

The number of visitors registering for tours to the RoK surpassed his company’s expectation after the launch of a tour featuring watching K-pop shows, according to Deputy General Director of Hanoi RedTours Nguyen Cong Hoan.

Kang Sungghil, Chief representative of the RoK General Department of Tourism in Vietnam said he believes that after MERS-CoV, the flow of Vietnamese arrivals to his country will recover.

Tourist flock to Sa Pa via new expressway

Hotels in Sa Pa resort town, Bac Ha district and Lao Cai city, the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai were fully booked during the first half of the year, according to local authorities.

Local food specialties were sold out due to a dramatic increase in the number of visitors after the Hanoi-Lao Cai Expressway was opened to traffic late last year, the local authority of Lao Cai province has reported.

Lu Van Khuyen, head of the Culture and Information Department of Sa Pa town, said the number of tourists arriving in the town in the first half of the year had increased by 30 percent against the same period last year.

As a result, the local tourism sector was running at full throttle, Khuyen said. Hotel rooms were fully booked, while local culinary specialties such as salmon and sturgeon had always been in great demand, he said.

Trinh Xuan Truong, Chairman of the Sa Pa district People’s Committee, said the shortage of hotel rooms and local food specialties had occurred despite the local authority predicting that the number of tourists visiting Sa Pa and other well-known tourist destinations in the province would increase when the expressway was opened.

This was a good signal to boost food cultivation for the locals, he said.

In Bac Ha district, which is famous for its Sunday market, where thousands of members of ethnic minority groups gather, the number of tourist arrivals has increased by 20 to 30 percent, which has brought higher profits to the tourism sector and allied businesses.

To meet the tourists’ demands, the local authority recently introduced a night bazaar that opens on weekends. The district has also launched tourism promotion campaigns and started trekking tours to ethnic minority villages high in the mountains.

To promote tourism and benefit from the Hanoi-Lao Cai Expressway, Lao Cai province needs to do much more, the local authority said.

Besides building and upgrading hotels and improving services, the province will draw up plans to expand orchards of select fruits and open more fodder farms to ensure a safe and abundant food supply.-

Rail fares to be discounted after summer peak

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