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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Vietnam has good conditions for int’l yacht racing

HCMC – Vietnam with a long coastline enjoys a strong advantage and suitable conditions to become a regional yachting center, a profession yacht race organizer said.

Yap Kai Keng, chief representative for Indochina of the World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) as an international yachting event, told the Daily that WMRT would take place in the coastal city of Nha Trang next year. He said that apart from Nha Trang, other places in Vietnam like Quang Ninh, Danang, Phu Quoc and Phan Thiet also have good conditions for organizing the race as an attractive event of sport and tourism.

Nha Trang has been chosen by a task force of WMRT from London as the top place for the race because it met strict requirements in terms of infrastructure, transportation arrangement, sea conditions and the wind.

“These conditions make Nha Trang an attractive place for the race. Furthermore, the race venue is in close proximity with Cam Ranh Airport, making transport arrangement for participants easier,” Yap said.

Vietnam, he said, is endowed with a long coastline and beautiful beaches, and thus can develop into a regional sailing center with sea sport activities and sea tourism.

Regarding the forthcoming race in Nha Trang, WMRT and Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism have inked an agreement on organizing the event in Vietnam, Yap said. The two sides are on the process of setting up a task force to organize the international race.

“Vietnam will host the event, while we will support the host country’s effort in organization as well as in funding aspects such as advising the event organizer on the sponsorship,” he said.

Yap said the country’s tourism would stand to benefit greatly. The event with all its activities would be broadcasted for not less than 20,000 minutes on TV channels including Star Sports to 180 countries and territories, he said, projecting the number of viewers at no less than one billion.

“It will help Vietnam to capture the attention of the world and bring the world to Vietnam in terms of sports, tourism, and economy,” he said.

The World Match Racing Tour is the professional sailing series, featuring 10 World Championship events across the globe. The race takes place every year in nine countries.

This year race started in France and is currently taking place in Switzerland. Malaysia is the final venue for the race this year.

Yap said that world-class sportsmen from countries such as Germany, Canada, the U.S. and Australia would participate in the race in Vietnam along with a local team.

“We will help train the Vietnamese sailing team to participate in the race and they could also join other races in the world in the coming time,” he said.

In related news, Saigontourist Holding Company will combine with foreign partners to organize an international yacht race from Hong Kong to Nha Trang in October, which is the fourth international race to Nha Trang City.

Meanwhile, the coastal province of Binh Thuan will also organize an international sailing festival with yacht performances.

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