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www.grandviewhotel.vn: Travel and airline representatives on Tuesday urged authorities to work harder on turning destinations into attractive spots as these will naturally serve as magnets for airlines and visitors, saying such spots would do better in promoting local airports.

Clodelsa Ty, country manager of United Airlines in Vietnam, told a seminar on promoting Can Tho, Phu Quoc and Lien Khuong airports in HCMC on Tuesday that attracting international airlines to these airports was actually based on the supply-demand principle.

"It's the question of economics. You provide the demand, the airlines will respond to the demand," Ty said at the Q-and-A session of the seminar organized by Southern Airports Corp. (SAC) and the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV).

Ty recommended CAAV, SAC, tourism and local authorities stimulate the demand so that international airlines would fly in and bring more travelers to these airports. "So, you have to give tourists and investors the reason to go to these places."

Nguyen Quoc Ky, general director of Vietravel, said developing airports for international services was just one necessary condition, and the more urgent condition was that localities have products and services suiting the demand of visitors.

Ky gave an example that infrastructure for the hospitality industry and airlines on Phu Quoc was still underdeveloped, making the renowned resort island off Kien Giang Province unable to serve a large number of tourists on peak days.

Ky said it was really a hard nut to crack for Vietravel to secure enough air-tickets for groups to fly on the same flights to certain tourist spots on certain days. He added it sometimes took Vietravel one day to arrange seats on different flights for a group of 200-400 MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) guests to one destination.

Phan Dinh Hue, director of Viet Circle Travel Co., shared Ky's concern, pointing out loose cooperation from airlines was part of the problem. He related how his firm recently had to compensate VND300,000 for each of a group of guests for transferring them from Vietnam Airlines to low-cost Jetstar Pacific though the company previously had retained a number of tickets under a cooperation program with the national air carrier.

Nguyen Van Tuan, head of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), said close cooperation between airlines and travel firms was of paramount importance as this helped both industries achieve the same target of attracting more guests and development.

"They are the two wings of an aircraft. The linkage between them is indispensable," Tuan told the seminar. He said promoting the three aforesaid airports would create new opportunities for tourism development in these localities.

Lai Xuan Thanh, deputy director general of CAAV, said airlines played a crucial role in transporting tourists to localities including Can Tho, Phu Quoc and Lam Dong. He told the seminar that there would be more incentives such as discounts for service charges at the airports for longer stays to make regular domestic and international flights to these airports a reality.

SAC general director Nguyen Nguyen Hung said the first half of this year saw a year-on-year increase of 30% in passenger number to 99,000 at Can Tho Airport, 28.5% to nearly 200,000 passengers at Phu Quoc and up to 60% to 134,000 passengers at Lien Khuong.

Hung said a new airport was scheduled for opening on Phu Quoc in the third quarter of 2012, or nearly four years after construction began to replace the current airport there. This new airport will be able to handle four million passengers a year.

Tuan of VNAT said Vietnam's tourism industry was rebounding remarkably so far this year as around 2.91 million international travelers visited the country in the January-July period compared to more than 2.17 million in the same period of last year. The number of domestic tourists rose by 20% to 19 million in the period.

Source: Saigontimes