These are good signals of the New Year for the city in the context that its tourism sector has been strongly affected by the world recession.

Five days later, a flight from South Korea will bring 178 tourists to this central city, according to the city's Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Other flights on the same route will fly to the city from January 5, 2009 to January 12, 2009.

This is a good chance to boost the relations between the city's tourism companies and South Korea's companies and tourists, especially as the two countries will celebrate the 30th anniversary of friendly relations this year, says the department.

New entertainment

In an effort to attract more tourists, the city's People's Committee has assigned the department to select some entertainment venues and permit them to operate 24 hours a day.

The committee also gives financial support to traditional art programmes to attract more foreign tourists, says Duong Thi Tho, an official from the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Along with this support, the city is also guiding the department to develop on river services that will open up new tourism routes. This decision was released after representatives of various sectors realised this niche had not been cashed in on yet.

In the coming days, the city will concentrate on upgrading the route leading to Son Tra Peninsula in order to open new tours to the peninsula in 2009.

It is estimated that four tours will be launched on the peninsula. These tours will be run by car, motorbike and sport's bicycle. Joining these tours, visitors will be able to enjoy fresh air and natural countryside or visit the famous Son Tra light-house.

Appropriate methods

To develop the city's tourism sector and overcome the world recession which is estimated to continue in 2009, representatives of the department, the city tourism association, hotels and big tourism companies have sat to discuss appropriate methods.

According to Huynh Tuan Vinh, deputy general director of Furama Resort, this will save electricity, water and advertising costs.

"We will develop advertisement in the Northeast Asia market and focus on training employees at hotels," he says.

Other four and five-start hotels such as Sandy Beach, Hoang Anh Plaza and Green Plaza will also strengthen their advertisement in South Korea. Recently, the chefs of these hotels have been studying South Korean cuisine.

While these big hotels focus on the South Korean market, three-star hotels such as Saigontourane, Phuong Dong and Failo will continue to exploit the Thai market.

Doing their part, travel companies have changed their tours and markets. They have opened tours to Indochinese countries and continue to have tours to attract Thai tourists.

The travel companies will develop in the near future if airlines, travel companies and hotels increase their co-operation, says Tran Ngoc Tam, director of Vitours.

These companies propose that the Government have a policy to reduce air fares and implement policies to encourage international airlines to fly directly to the city.

This is a method to indirectly reduce tour fares to attract tourists to Viet Nam's central provinces, says Tam.