Foreign river cruise firms bring in more vessels

News - Many foreign river cruise operators arrange more trips on a route connecting HCMC and Cambodia’s Phnom Penh and Siem Reap as they see potential in waterway tourism.

Foreign firms enjoy more advantages in exploiting this waterway while local firms mainly sell and operate tours at destinations.

Vu Duy Vu, deputy director of Saigontourist Travel Service Co., said waterway tourism was growing well. The HCMC-based tourism firm started serving such cruise ships 10 years ago, but there were two to three trips coming a year at the time, he noted.

Passenger arrivals had not increased much until 2008. In the peak travel season from last October to this April, Saigontourist Travel expects to serve 60-70 trips.

The company’s partner, a cruise firm owned by a French investor which has just opened an office in Cambodia, said it would build new ships to ply this waterway, Vu said. The route, he added, is quite appealing as there are many beautiful scenes along the way and Vietnam and Cambodia are included as two destinations just in one tour.

Some other foreign firms have also opened more trips focusing on the stretch from Tien Giang Province’s My Tho City to Cambodia as the topography in My Tho is easier for ships than in HCMC.

Pandaw is an example. The firm will raise the number of ships operating in Vietnam from three to five this year, and then ten with half traveling between HCMC to Angkor Wat.

Similarly, Indochina Sails and Heritage Line also have two ships each plying the waterway from Vietnam to Cambodia.

Bui Viet Thuy Tien, managing director of Asian Trails, said that such river tours were quite expensive but fascinating, especially for Western tourists. The growth of waterway tourism is seen through the increase in trips and ships, she said.