Typhoon Megi forces cancellation of Hong Kong-Vietnam yacht race

Flooding, typhoon hit tour operators

HCMC – The organizer of an international yacht race from Hong Kong to Vietnam has shelved the competition scheduled to take place on Wednesday.

The Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club said the VinaCapital Hong Kong to Vietnam Race had been canceled due to the approaching super typhoon Megi, which has battered the Philippines on its course to the East Sea.

The organizer said it regarded safety as the first priority for all its events, particularly for its international Category 1 Offshore events. It would be unthinkable to send the boats to stormy high seas, it said in a statement.

However, the organizer said that competitors and the club are fully supportive of running the race in the middle of next October. The date is expected to be set soon to allow international competitors to plan their racing calendars.

Vu Duy Vu, deputy director of the race’s local partner Saigontourist Travel Service Co., has confirmed the cancellation.

“We completed all preparatory activities for the race but we had to cancel it for safety reasons,” he told the Daily on Tuesday.

Earlier, the central Government had allowed Saigontourist Holding Company, the parent company of Saigontourist Travel Service Co., to combine with the foreign partner to organize the 656km race from Wednesday to next Wednesday.

The event has been taking place every two years since 2004.

* In related news, local travel firms said they have stopped selling tours to Quang Binh Province known for the World Heritage-listed Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park which is home to the longest underground rivers and the largest caverns, as the severe flooding in the central region is still unpredictable.

“We have stopped selling tours to Quang Binh since last week. Tours to other destinations in the central region like Danang and Hue are still selling as normal but fewer tourists are purchasing such tours,” Tran Quoc Bao, head of the domestic department of Saigontourist Travel Company, told the Daily on Tuesday.

Tour operators said that the hardest hit provinces, including Quang Binh, Ha Tinh and Nghe An, are not favorite tourist destinations like others nearby such as Danang, Hue, and Hoi An, so flooding has left little impact.

However, tour operators are concerned about the bad impact of the new super typhoon Megi, which might prompt tourists to cancel all tours to the region.

Fiditourist already feels the impact, as the company on Tuesday received a request from a big group of tourists for cancellation of a tour of the coastal city of Nha Trang.

“The tourists’ final decision has yet to come but we will lose more if the tour is cancelled because Vietnam Airlines is asking for full charges of the cancellation,” said Nguyen Ngoc An, head of the domestic department of Fiditourist.

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Int’l arrivals in high season recover in uncertainties

Foreign tourists join an outdoor activity to make artistic articles from clay in a tour in Vietnam arranged by Saigontourist Travel Service Co. - Photo: Hoang Long

HCMC – Local travel firms have reported recovery in international tourists in the high season of the inbound tourism, but most still refrain from predicting business outcome for the rest of the year, saying uncertainties are still ahead.

Saigontourist Travel Service Co. has reported a good number of foreign travelers in the January-September period at 180,000, up 11% year-on-year. The company’s deputy director Hoang Huu Loc said that it was still very difficult to talk about any estimate for the high season and the whole year.

“So far, we have some bookings for the whole year, but the majority of travelers tend to purchase tours some weeks or one month in advance. Based on current figures we can say the business is increasing at the moment but we can’t say about this year’s growth rate,” he said.

The company names France and Germany among the major source markets with good growth rates.

Normally, travel companies who receive tourists from long-haul destinations such as Europe and North America often close the tours in November or December, but now the companies are still open to requests from customers.

Asian Trails Co., Ltd., another major travel firm in the city, is also reserved about the year’s business.

“It’s hard to assess the market. It’s changing so fast. At my company, the number of tourists still has not recovered to the same level of 2007 or 2008,” said Bui Viet Thuy Tien, director of the company.

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has reported more than 3.7 million foreign visitor arrivals to the country during the January-September period, a staggering increase of 34.2% year-on-year.

HCMC as the country’s biggest tourism center said it has welcomed 2.2 million international visitors in the period, up 13% over the same period of last year.

However, local travel firms have reported a lower growth rate of real foreign arrivals, not only from long-haul but also short-haul markets like Japan and South Korea.

“At my company, Singapore, Philippines and China markets take the lead in the growth rate, but the growth rate is still lower than in the good year of 2007,” said Tran Vinh Loc, director of Lac Hong Voyages.

“We are still selling packaged tours as traditional tours to foreign travelers but we are following new trends of travel to make new products in the coming times,” Loc said.

Travel companies have found travelers tending to travel on free and easy tours as well as budget and short-day tours.

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