Vietravel is offering five and six-day tours to Thailand with Lufthansa for between USD 324 and USD 334 respectively, and a six-day tour to Beijing at USD 399. These prices are up to USD 60 lower.

Fiditour’s four-day tour to Singapore is now being offered at USD 405, down from USD 460 months ago.

Another tour operator, SPSC Tourism, is offering four-day tours to Beijing for only USD 359.

“Tour costs have reduced because airlines have cut ticket prices for the year-end low tourist season, and this comes on top of a series of fuel price cuts,” Huynh Thu Dung, head of Vietravel’s press office said.

Dung expected that tourists would flock to popular domestic destinations like Vung Tau, Nha Trang and Da Lat during year-end holidays, but other destinations such as Mui Ne in central Binh Thuan Province’s Phan Thiet Town, 230 km from HCM City, are also ideal spots for relaxation.

Prices for tours to Phan Thiet and Nha Trang offered by Vietravel will be reduced until the end of December, between VND 700,000 (USD 41.67) and VND 500,000 (USD 29.76) a tour, depending on the day of departure.

“Prices of tours which start on Saturdays are often higher than weekday tours,” Dung said.

For only VND 2 million (USD 119), tourists can book a four-day tour to Da Lat to enjoy the cool weather of the mountainous resort town on Christmas Eve. The price of the tour, organized by Saigontourist Co, has fallen by VND 500,000 compared with a few months ago.

Saigontourist’s weekly tours to Phan Thiet from now to the end of this year will drop to VND 1,296,000 (USD 77.14) from VND 1,700,000 (USD 101.19). The company also organizes budget honeymoon tours from HCM City to Phan Thiet at only VND 2,100,000 (USD 125) for two people for a two-day stay at three-star hotels.

During their one-day stay, the passengers visited the oil-rich city of Vung Tau and saw the sights on offer at HCMC before continuing their voyage to Cambodia.

As scheduled, the Diamond Princess will return to Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province on March 18 to visit other tourist hotspots in Vietnam’s southern region.

On March 6, the province received around 2,350 international tourists and crew on board the five-star vessel, Legend of the Seas.

A PTSC Phu My Port official said that two luxury international cruise liners are also registered for tours to Vung Tau City and HCMC on March 14 and 17.

They are the UK-flagged Queen Victoria, with more than 3,000 passengers and crew on board, and the Azcadia, from Bermuda , with a complement of 2,700 tourists and crew.

On June 28 evening, the beauty queens joined a seashore gala night and an exchange with Vietnamese entrepreneurs.

Many of their souvenirs were auctioned during the event to raise funds for the Thanh Nien daily-initiated Nguyen Thai Binh scholarship programme.

This is the first time Vietnam hosts the beauty contest since its inception more than 50 years ago. The event is a chance for Vietnam to promote the image of its land and people to the world.

The photos taken by 14 Republic of Korea’s photographers features Vietnamese landscape, daily life, and the country’s achievements in the renewal process.

Addressing the open ceremony of the exhibition from April 2-15, Vietnamese Envoy Hoang Xuan Hai expressed his hope that Korean people will gain better understanding on Vietnam’s country and people.

The photo exhibition is co-sponsored by the Vietnam Embassy in the Republic of Korea and Korea.