Vietnam announces new tourism plans

What Vietnam can offer to Tourist?

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has announced that “Exotic Beaches and Islands” will be the theme of the National Tourism Year 2011.

The National Tourism Year is considered the most important aspect of the country’s tourism calendar and is intended to encourage investment in infrastructure, tourism facilities and services.

In 2011, the government’s series of organized events designed to woo tourists will focus their attentions on Phu Yen Province. Da Nang City and other provinces in the region will also participate, VNAT announced.

Major events of the National Tourism Year 2011 will include an international mountaineering tournament at Da Bia Mountain in March 2011, the Vietnam-South Korea Cultural Exchange in April, and the ASEAN Traditional Music Festival in June.

Prior to the announcement, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism released a list of provinces and cities that will share the honor from 2012 to 2017.

Thua Thien-Hue will be the host in 2012, Hai Phong City in 2013, Lam Dong in 2014, Thanh Hoa in 2015, Kien Giang in 2016, and Lao Cai in 2017.

Launched in 2003, the designation has focused on cities all over the country - from Can Tho to Dien Bien. This year it focused on Hanoi to mark the city’s millennial anniversary.

Visit to Maryland

Do you want to go to Maryland?

Maryland's governor told a conference of tourism professionals that the state is beginning to see some positive indicators amid a stagnant national economy.
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"There are people who have been doing revenue estimates in your state government -- very professional, smart people -- for 30, 40 years, and they've never seen anything like what's happened in the last two years of this recession," Gov. Martin O'Malley said. "But we're starting to see some glimmers of hope."

O'Malley addressed a luncheon at the Maryland Tourism & Travel Summit, formerly the Governor's Tourism Industry Conference, at the Roland E. Powell Convention Center. The annual event, in its 29th year, saw lower attendees than usual, officials said, likely as a result of the economy.

The governor said while nationwide tourism and travel-related jobs fell by 8 percent in the last year, Maryland saw those jobs increase by 1.5 percent. He also said overall lodging nights broke even while the rest of the country was down "considerably."

O'Malley noted a recent Forbes magazine report that Maryland is among a handful of states that saw growth in the last year. He also said in September the state gained 1,400 construction jobs -- the first increase in that sector in 18 months.

"There's 50 ships in our fleet, and you could not be on a stronger ship than the good ship Maryland," he said, repeating a nautical analogy he's used often in 2009. "We'll get through this. We're going to get through it together, and we're going to come out of it stronger than before."

Anirban Basu, an economist who addressed the conference last Thursday, said Maryland is in better economic shape than most other states.

He said since September 2008, the state lost 58,000 jobs -- about 62 percent of which came from the Baltimore area -- though at half the pace of the rest of the U.S. He also said the Baltimore and Washington metropolitan areas have the lowest unemployment rates among major urban areas.

"I don't think we fully appreciate how rough things are out there for the rest of people," Basu said.

He predicted that next year's economy will show moderate improvement, though it's too early to say if inflation will be problematic. He also said U.S. unemployment is likely to peak above 10 percent, as taxes are likely to rise while Bush-era tax cuts lapse.

O'Malley presented the Visit Maryland Award to Delmarva Low Impact Tourism Experiences for its "Host Our Coast" program, which paid two young people to set up shop on the Lower Shore and post blog items and videos about their outdoor adventures all summer.

O'Malley also mentioned Thursday how the state's current budget was crafted with the intention of protecting dollars earmarked for tourism marketing. "We took cuts to a greater degree on the statewide things so that the destination marketing would be less impacted," he said.

"And I can tell you this," O'Malley added. "As long as I'm governor, you'll never see me take one dime or one dollar of your tourism promotion ads to put pictures of my wife and kids on TV, or me. You know, campaigns are campaigns. These dollars are precious to you, they're precious to our economy. We might have fewer of them, but every single dime goes to promoting your industry."

Former governor Robert Ehrlich during his 2003-2007 term starred in state tourism advertisements on radio and television. Ehrlich, a Republican who lost the 2006 election to O'Malley, is said to be mulling another State House run for 2010.

When asked, O'Malley later denied that his comment was a jab at Ehrlich.

"No, it was more underscoring that we made a commitment that we'd use all the dollars to promote tourism, and not for political purposes," he said. "And that's what we've done. We've stuck to that commitment."

Discussion on Natural Tourist Attaction In South Africa

Here's Some Thought About South Africa

South Africa's Drakensberg mountains are home to the world's second-highest waterfall, the Tugela Falls (Thukela Falls), with a total drop of 947 metres. They are easily viewed after a heavy rain from the main road into the park. (The highest waterfall in the world is the 979-metre Salto Angel in Venezuela.)

The Cango Caves is one of the worlds great natural wonders, sculptured by nature through the ages - fascinating limestone formations in a wide variety of colours. Trained guides conduct visitors through this underground wonderworld of the world's finest stalactite cave.

The Blyde River Canyon is the third largest "gorge" in the world (largest green canyon) and one of South Africa's fanous natural wonders. The Blyde River Canyon is the kind of place where brochures and guide books run out of original adjectives to describe the fresh mountain scenery and magnificent panoramic views.

Where the Blyde River ("river of joy") and the Treur River ("river of sorrow") meet, water erosion has formed one of South Africa's most remarkable geological phenomena, known as the Bourke's Luck Potholes. Over thousands of years, surreal cylindrical rock sculptures created by whirling water, have formed a series of dark pools which contrast artfully with the streaked white and yellow lichen covered rocks.

At God's Window on the Drakensberg escarpment, majestic cliffs plunge over 700 meters to the Lowveld and the private game reserves which have made the area one of Africa's prime wildlife destinations.

God's Window is a small part of a 250km long rampart of sheer cliffs - it indeed seems as if one can see forever! With its magnificent views, rock formations, canyons and waterfalls, God's Window is truly an area of breathtaking scenic grandeur.

The series of caverns called the Sudwala Caves are one of South Africa's major attractions. The caves are believed to be about 2 000 million years old and contain not only stalagmites and stalagtites, but also the fossilised remains of 'collenia' a form of algae that it is believed life on earth evolved from.

The Greater St Lucia Wetland Park has both one of the largest estuary systems in Africa and the continent's southernmost coral reefs. In granting it World Heritage status in 1999, the World Heritage Committee noted the park's "exceptional biodiversity, including some 521 bird species".

Around 2-billion years ago a massive meteorite, 10 kilometres in diameter, hit the earth about 100km southwest of Johannesburg, creating an enormous impact crater. What remains of this impact crater is now known as the Vredefort Dome and is located near to the small Free State town of Vredefort.

South Africa has many top Game / Nature Reserves, and is home to many of the mammals of southern Africa. Numerous wildlife safari and tour companies operate guided tours to South Africa. Popular adventure travel activities in South Africa include: horse riding safaris, elephant back safaris, mountain biking, birding, wilderness walking trails, science safaris and volunteering especially for GAP year students.