On February 25, Da Nang received a caravan from Thailand, the first one in the Year of Pigs, which consisted of 60 cars, carrying 90 tourists.

The caravan with 60 right-handed cars arrived in Da Nang after staying one day at the Hoi An ancient town in Quang Nam Province. In Da Nang, the tourists visited Cham Sculpture Museum and the city’s centre, went shopping at traditional supermarkets and left the city in the afternoon of the same day.

Among the 90 Thai tourists in the caravan, there were 30 reporters from television channels, newspapers and magazines. Another caravan of 630 tourists will arrive in the central region in early March, which will be followed by four other caravans with 200 tourists in total.

While caravan has become a popular mode of tourism in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, it remains unfamiliar to many Vietnamese people. Caravan tourism was kicked start in Vietnam in 1993-1994, and then got stuck due to the regulations of the Vietnamese transportation laws in 2002. It was just resumed in June 2005, after the Governments of Vietnam and Thailand reached some agreements which paved the way for the development of this mode of tourism.

Local travel firms now can see big potentials in caravan tourism with luxurious travellers, who have high spending and stay at luxury hotels.

Nguyen Ngoc Tam, Director of Vietnamtourism in Da Nang said: “We are planning to develop the tours across Indochina by land with the focus on Thailand and Laos markets. In the immediate time, we will set up representative offices in the Northeast of Thailand and in Laos”.

(Source: Vietnam Net)