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Despite the economic difficulties that have forced people to curb spending habits, the number of travelers has not decreased. In order to attract travelers in this difficult period, travel firms have been trying to launch products with reasonable prices.

The International Boat Racing Festival 2011 officially opened at Hon Rom beach in Phan Thiet City in the southern province of Binh Thuan on March 17.

The festival titled “Boat, Sea and Sun” attracted 20 sailing groups, including some strong contenders from Russia, Netherlands, Sweden, US, Italy, Greece, Spain and Japan.

Poor infrastructure and service and a lack of co-ordination between the railway and tourism sectors are making train travel less attractive to tourists.

Statistics released by the Viet Nam Railway Department showed railway revenues remain modest, hovering at about 7 per cent of the country's transport market.

Sailors from countries including Singapore, Malaysia and Pakistan arrived with their boats this week to take part in the International Sailing Festival. On the other side of the peninsular, Manta Sailing School will also hold morning sailing races near the Mui Ne fishing port as part of the four-day event.

Many travel companies in the country plan to increase the price of local tours by 15–20 per cent, following the rise in prices of many tourist services such as transport and accommodations.

Pham Duc Hoa, Deputy Manager of the HCM City-based Saigontourist, said prices for his company's local tours would increase by 15–20 per cent in April.

Phan Thiet has announced the cultural and sports events for this year’s Lunar New Year 2011.

From Jan. 30 until Feb. 8 (the 27th of the 12th lunar month until the sixth of the first lunar month) there are numerous music performances, sports activities, folk games and lion dances at most of the province’s 18 wards.

Tour operators and travel agencies are preparing to welcome tens of thousands of foreign tourists for the nation's biggest traditional festival, the Tet.

The tour packages are aimed at ensuring the cosy reunion of people over Tet. Packages were also designed to attract foreign visitors to explore festivals held exclusively for the occasion.

Hundreds of holidayers in Phan Thiet cheered on their favorite team at a banh chung wrapping contest at a festival at Sea Horse Resort on Tuesday night.

The contest to make the square glutinous rice cake filled with green bean paste and pork fat was part of a banh chung festival held by the resort. Twenty three teams, many of them tourists from Russia, Germany, Estonia and Rumania, competed.

Phu Quy Island, also called Thu or Khoai Islet, is 120km from Phan Thiet City, between the mainland and Truong Sa Archipelago. The island covers 16 square kilometers and has many cultural and religious relics typical of central coast farming communities.

We left Phan Thiet Port at 7 a.m. The slow boat took eight hours. I was seasick most of the way because of the bumpy conditions. It was very tiring, but I jumped up straight away when the siren signaled our arrival.

The number of domestic tourists has increased sharply over the New Year holidays.

The number of visitors to Sapa, a favourite northern tourist site, increased by 5 times compared to the first two days of last year. The number is expected to also expected to rise in coming days.