Travel

Central province welcomes first tourists boarding seaplanes

The southern central province of Binh Thuan welcomed the first tourists, 14 Russians, travelling by seaplanes on January 3 after the first two flights from Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat Airport landed on Bau Trang Lake in Hoa Thang commune, Bac Binh district, at noon.
The southern central province of Binh Thuan welcomed the first tourists,14 Russians, travelling by seaplanes on January 3 after the first twoflights from Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat Airport landed on Bau TrangLake in Hoa Thang commune, Bac Binh district, at noon.

The flights by seaplanes linking HCM City and the province’s Mui Ne are operated by the Hai Au Aviation Joint Stock Company.

Duringmore than an hour on board, visitors can enjoy the southern centralpart of Vietnam with outstanding places of interest such as the Ke Galight house, the beach of Phan Thiet city, and the Mui Ne resort area.

ThaiHoang Dung, a representative of the Hai Au company in Mui Ne, saidtheir seaplanes are produced in the US and can fly at around 300km perhour. Each aircraft is able to carry 12 passengers, but the firm letsonly six to eight people go on board to ensure safety.

The company will offer two flights by seaplanes from HCM City to Mui Ne every day, he added.

HaiAu is the first firm in Vietnam to be licensed to operate seaplaneservices for commercial purposes. It launched a tourist seaplane routefrom Hanoi to Ha Long Bay in northern Quang Ninh province in September,2014, and plans to expand similar services to other destinations incentral and southern Vietnam such as Nha Trang, Da Lat, Con Dao, PhuQuoc, and Can Tho.

The opening of the seaplane route is hoped todiversify tourism services in Binh Thuan, which welcomed more than 3.7million tourist arrivals with 11 percent being foreigners, and earnednearly 6 trillion VND (285.7 million USD) from the sector in 2014.-VNA
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