New routes make travel to Vietnam easier
Vietjet Air has launched two direct round-trip routes between Shanghai and Ho Chi Minh City, as well as Chengdu and Ho Chi Minh.
Vietnam has injected new vitality into a tourism campaign targeting Chinese travelers with the launch of new air routes and the development of a tourist-friendly environment to boost tourism and cultural exchanges between the two countries.
Major Vietnam airlines operator Vietjet Air recently announced that it had officially launched two direct round-trip routes between Shanghai and Ho Chi Minh City as well as Chengdu, the capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, and Ho Chi Minh on a daily basis.
The start of the Shanghai-Ho Chi Minh City route aligns with the commemoration of the 74th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and China, and the 30th anniversary of sister-city relationship between the two cities.
It is expected to become a milestone in further developing trade, cultural exchange, education, and people-to-people ties between the two cities and two countries, the airline operator said.
It takes about four hours for each journey.
Famous Vietnamese street food such as Vietnamese bread, Vietnamese beef noodle, as well as Singaporean noodles, Thai fried rice, and crab noodles are available onboard.
A recent promotion of Vietjet Air at Shanghai's Yuyuan Garden scenic area
As well as the two daily routes, Vietjet is operating chartered flights to Vietnam from other Chinese cities such as Hangzhou, Tianjin, Xi'an, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Nanjing, Shijiazhuang, Harbin, and Lijiang.
Chinese travel service provider Trip.com has signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate with Vietjet Air to leverage the expertise and resources of both parties to make travel to Vietnam and international destinations easier.
Meanwhile, Vietnam is promoting the payment of WeChat and Alipay among businesses and has beefed up training of Chinese-speaking tour guides and shop assistants.
Trip.com said the bookings of its tour products to Vietnam surged 299.7 percent last year from a year earlier, and the number of inbound travelers from Vietnam to China also soared 344 percent.
During this year's Spring Festival period between February 8 and 14, Vietnam recorded about 10.5 million visits by tourists, up 16.6 percent from a year earlier, and the number of overnight travelers reached 3.5 million, growing 75 percent.
A big welcome for Chinese travelers
