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AVIATION
HELPS DEVELOP SUB-REGIONAL TOURISM
Ha Noi, March
11 (VNA)-- The civil aviation services from Viet Nam,
Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar have worked out a long-term
cooperation plan up to 2009, promoting links among the
four countries as a springboard for regional tourist
development.
"With 1 million foreign arrivals to Ho
Chi Minh City last year, a number which is expected to
increase considerably in the coming years, it is
necessary for these countries to open a new trans-Indochina
air route from Ho Chi Minh City to the former imperial
city of Hue in Viet Nam, to former imperial city of Siem
Reap in Cambodia and former imperial city of Luong
Prabang in Laos. The route will enable tourists to view
a world wonder in each flight hour," said Duong Tri
Thanh, Head of the Viet Nam Airlines' Passenger
Marketing Department.
He added that the route would be expanded
to Myanmar's former imperial city of Mandlay later on,
thus helping develop sub-regional tourist services.
"Viet Nam Airlines is ready to
schedule additional flights to Hue city from other
tourist sites in the region, first of all from Luong
Phrabang and Siem Reap, in service of Hue Festival
2002," said Director General of the Viet Nam
Airlines Nguyen Xuan Hien. He added that it would be the
first step in the development of another Trans-regional
route.
The existing route links the three
Indochinese capital cities of Ha Noi, Vientiane and
Phnom Penh and Viet Nam's Ho Chi Minh City with four
flights weekly.
In addition, the four countries have opened
some new sub-regional air links over the past four years
of cooperation, including the route from Ho Chi Minh
City to Siem Reap, from Luong Prabang to Dien Bien Phu (the
historic valley where Viet Nam defeated French
colonialists), and Vientiane-Pac Se-Siem Reap.
The passengers on these routes are tourists
coming from Europe and east and north Asian countries
who have purchased trans-subregional tour packages
taking them to interesting historic and cultural sites
in Laos and Cambodia.
These tours have proved attractive to
tourists. The Ho Chi Minh City - Siem Reap route, for
example, last year contributed to bringing the Cambodian
province 278,128 foreign tourists, said Deputy
provincial Chairman Pech Sokhen. His provincial airport
operates 20 direct flights to Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok,
Singapore and Vientiane a day.
Despite such development, problems still
lie ahead, conceded Deputy Director of the Tourist
Administration of Viet Nam Vu Tuan Canh. He cited poor
infrastructure facilities and service quality and
inexperienced performance in product promotion.
The gap of development in the region has
also posed an obstable to the common cause, Canh said.
Viet Nam accounted for 2.1 million foreign
arrivals of the sub-regional total of 3.7 million in
2000.
These difficulties, however, will not
prevent the four countries from working together to
develop their air services in the years to come as
authorities of civil aviation and tourist industries
have vowed at a recent conference in Hue city.--VNA
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