It is cool in the north, dry in the south, Westerners have time off from work, and Asians have money in their pockets. There’s no better time to visit Viet Nam than right now.

Foreign tourists visiting the country this year rose by 24 per cent despite the bird flu outbreak, and hotels and tourism operators are preparing for a year-end spike. Beach resorts from Nha Trang in the centre of the country to Phu Quoc Island off the southern tip are reporting some of their highest occupancy rates ever.

The Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism announced that in November alone, Viet Nam hosted 275,000 international tourists, bringing the total number of travellers to 2.64 million during the first 11 months of the year. The number of visitors came close to reaching the Government’s annual target of 2.8 million.

Of the 2.64 million visitors, about 1.64 million came from Viet Nam’s largest tourism markets, mainland China and Taiwan, the United States, Japan, and South Korea.

Fledgling economy

Tourism in Viet Nam has thrived since the early 1990s, especially after relations with the US were normalised in 1995.

Since 2000, the government has urged the hospitality industry to aggressively develop the sector. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, Viet Nam’s annual tourism growth rate will stabilise at around 8.3 per cent over the next 10 years, ranking fourth after Montenegro, China, and India.

According to the London-based marketing firm Euromonitor International, after the terrorist attacks in the US, Indonesia and Russia, followed by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Viet Nam’s reputation as a safe and stable place to travel is fuelling a tourist and business boom that pushed hotel occupancy rates to 80 to 90 per cent in 2002-2003. This is a huge change from the nearly empty hotels witnessed during the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, Euromonitor said.

Like other countries in Asia, Viet Nam experienced other fluctuations in 2003 caused by the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak. But it was the first among the world’s 30 countries affected by the outbreak to contain the virus within three months. In April 2003 the World Health Organi-sation (WHO) announced that Viet Nam had contained SARS successfully and removed the country from the list of SARS-hit areas.

Chinese influx

As Japanese visitors increased following the lifting of visa restrictions many hope already high numbers of Chinese tourists could be increased with similar enticements.

Of last year’s 2.64 million tourists, 715,000 of them came from mainland China, more than any other country or territory.

China and Viet Nam have made concerted efforts to promote tourism between the two countries. The Chinese Ministry of Railways recently decided to spend 100 million yuan (about US$12 million) to upgrade and rebuild railways from Kunming to Ha Noi. That rail link, first opened in 1910, is part of the Trans-Asia Railway that passes through China, Viet Nam, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore and plays a vital role in transporting passengers and cargo between western China and Southeast Asia.

The Vietnamese, in the hopes of raising the annual number of visitors from China to 1 million, are working to lift visa restrictions for tourists from their northern neighbour.

The Ministry of Public Securities and the National Administration of Tourism had a regulation in the works that would allow Chinese travellers to enter Viet Nam by land or sea without a passport.

The regulation was scheduled to take effect on September 12, 2004 but Vu The Binh, director of the tourism administration’s Travel Department, said the laissez-passer programme for Chinese tourists has stalled.

"We are working on it and I can’t say when it will be realised," Binh told Viet Nam News. He declined to give details.

In effect, the new rule would replace an older document, issued in 1998, that allows Chinese tourists to visit only six northern provinces – Quang Ninh, Lang Son, Ha Giang, Cao Bang, Lao Cai, and Lai Chau – and Ha Noi with a permit but not a visa.

Binh said that according to international law, laissez-passer programmes are applicable only for visitors in areas around border gates.

"In an effort to attract as many tourists as possible, we have to work out a way to allow pass holders to tour all of Viet Nam without breaking international rules," he said.

Tropical getaway

Though many tourists are initially attracted to Viet Nam because of its pivotal roles in Asian and world history, most are impressed by the countries unique culture, high quality services and diverse ecology.

Though relatively undeveloped in the mid-1990s, Viet Nam from the capital in Ha Noi to the commercial hub of HCM City has embraced tourism.

Nowhere is this as evident as in the central coastal region of the country, which in just a few years has become a hot spot, housing some of the country’s most stunning new resorts.

Overlooking Da Nang’s renowned beaches, the five-star Furama Resort Danang has 198 rooms. Its general manager, Paul Stoll, says that in just seven years of operating, the Furama has the highest average room rate in Viet Nam, at $120-130.

"Though the bird flu hit early this year, we were very lucky that our occupancy remained the same 65-67 per cent as in previous years," Stoll said, adding that they are expecting even higher rates next year.

Moving southwards from Da Nang, the coastal city of Nha Trang in the south central province of Khanh Hoa boasts the best beaches in Viet Nam. In June 2004, Nha Trang Bay with its 19 beautiful islands, was recognised as the 29th member of the World’s Most Beautiful Bays.

In the August issue of the American business publication, Forbes Magazine, Christina Valhouli wrote that even though development is everywhere in Nha Trang, with new apartment buildings and hotels popping up all over the place, the resort that put Nha Trang on the map is the Ana Mandara.

When it first opened in 1997, the resort was the only beach front hotel in Nha Trang. It has a laid-back island feel, with 74 bungalow-style rooms that are housed in thatched-roof cottages with simple teak floors and beds enveloped in mosquito netting.

Nguyen Thi Thu, the resort’s marketing manager, said the best thing about Ana Mandara is that it is designed with in a traditional Vietnamese way, from the exterior architecture to the interior design. "We try to keep and make the best out of the locality’s original beauty, not to borrow the modern from anywhere else."

Thu said Evason Hideaways and Six Senses which run the resort are starting another project, a resort complex of 54 villas, in the nearby Ninh Van Bay. When it opens next February, it will be Viet Nam’s first hotel to charges $400-1,200 a night.

The Sunrise Beach Resort is considered, by many, the best hotel in Nha Trang with its sea-views, private balconies, and colonial design. Since business started in September, the hotel has filled, on average, 30 per cent of its rooms.

"We are doing better and better, soon we will have a 60 per cent occupancy rate," said resort general manager Patrick Fernandez.