More and more Vietnamese people are choosing the island country of Singapore, the biggest economy in Southeast Asia, as an attractive regional travel destination, according to the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).
The reasons for the rise are attributed to better tourism promotion by the foreign country and rising Vietnamese living standards.
Since the beginning of 2006, some 160,000 Vietnamese people have registered to visit the island country. The figure represents a 10 per cent increase over last year in the number of Vietnamese travelers to Singapore, STB reported.
The figure will surely be higher by the end of this year, as the tourism season has just begun in the country, an official from STB said, adding that STB decided to spend S$170 million from the S$2 billion fund for tourism development on a tourism promotion program, scheduled to last five years from 2006 to 2010, in order to attract more travelers to the country.
Also, STB has organized a workshop in Ho Chi Minh City, introducing Singapore’s MICE tourism (meeting, incentives, conference, exhibition).
However, some Vietnamese travel companies complain of difficulty booking hotels for tourists, though Singapore has 30,000 rooms in 100 standardized hotels. While the number of tourists to Singapore is increasing, the number of hotel rooms in the country seems to be remaining the same.
Singapore is now one of Vietnam’s major tourism markets, continuously posted the highest on-year growth rate in the number of tourists visiting Vietnam.
In the first eleven months of this year, Vietnam welcomed more than 91,270 visitors from Singapore, a year-on-year increase of 24.3 per cent.
VietNamNet
Vietnamese
