Vietnam is enjoying the fruits of Asia’s booming cruise industry, witnessing a peak in cruise arrivals through early 2012.
The number of cruise travellers to Vietnam is expected to increase by 30% by the end of 2011, and the National Administration of Tourism plans to welcome more than one million cruise passengers by 2015.
Nguyen Van Tuan, general director of the National Administration of Tourism, said that building large-scale marine tourism complexes would be fundamental to this plan, which has private sector support. Travel company, Saigontourist is calling for a US$64 million investment in an amusement and marina complex in HCM City’s Nha Be District.
This year, travel agencies have already seen a large number of international cruises to Can Tho and HCM City as well as coastal Khanh Hoa and Quang Ninh provinces.
In January, Viet Nam received about 19 international cruises and 12 river steamers of the world’s leading shipping companies, including Costa Classica, SuperStar, Aquarius and Indochine, which brought thousands of international travelers from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Japan and China. In February, the five-star Costa Classica docked at Ha Long Bay five times, bringing about 10,000 visitors, reports Viet Nam News.
While many of these major cruise companies have long-term contracts with domestic tourism operators, Nguyen Thi Minh Thu, director of Mekong Tourism Company insists that a coordinated effort to improve basic infrastructure and enhance services was needed to encourage cruisers to stay longer and repeat visit.