Hanoi hotels brace for 800,000 visitors

Foreign tourists are fond of soaking in Hanoi on cyclos (Photo by Viet Hung)

The capital city is expecting some 800,000 domestic and foreign visitors during the festivities.

According to representatives from several hotels in the city, tourism in Hanoi has entered a low season. Several years ago, all hotel rooms in the city were occupied at this time, but during recent years, the number of visitors to the city has decreased dramatically.

This gave hotels time to renovate their infrastructure to welcome a huge amount of travelers during the upcoming big event. Many hotels have installed wifi systems, prepared tourism maps and even redecorated the interior of their hotel rooms.

A representative from the room reservation department of Hoa Binh Hotel shared, “It’s difficult to predict the number of visitors to Hanoi during the great festival. However, there’s hardly a lack of hotel rooms in Hanoi. At present, we still have many rooms available.”

A representative from Melia Hotel said that normally, Hanoi welcomes higher amounts of tourists in October than other months, so the celebration and festivities should draw even more.

“Some days ago, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism under the Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports & Tourism held a meeting with us about preparing hotel rooms for tourists, especially foreign visitors on the occasion of 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long – Hanoi. We confirmed that our hotel could absolutely meet the accommodation demand of visitors,” added the representative from Melia Hotel.

However, according to Doan Thi Thanh Tra, the marketing manager of Saigontourist Travel Services Company, it’s quite difficult to book hotel rooms in Hanoi at this time. Thus, the company has offered tours to Ninh Binh Province or some other neighbouring areas of Hanoi for extra orders from their customers to avoid overbooking in the city.

“We will receive nearly 3,000 international and domestic visitors. Among them, there are 640 international visitors to Hanoi during its 1,000th anniversary. They have booked their rooms already so there will be no worry of a room shortage in Hanoi,” added Tra.

According to Duong Mai Lan, manager of the Research and Development Department of Vietravel Hanoi, “We have coordinated closely with our partners in booking hotel rooms for visitors. Thus, although there will be a lot of tourists in Hanoi during the coming event, we do not face any challenge in booking rooms and other necessary services for our customers. At present, we have had 270 bookings for the great festival tour. We are ready to provide them with the best services and most interesting tours in Hanoi.”

Additionally, representatives from several hotels in the city said that many streets would be closed to traffic during the celebration. This may cause difficulties in traveling for tourists. For example, if they want to visit Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, they need to travel quite far because vehicles will be banned to access this area.

They also have to walk if they want to visit entertainment and recreation areas in Hanoi’s Old Quarter. The restricted access is likely to cause jams and traffic problems throughout the city.

Hanoi’s Department of Culture, Sports & Tourism estimated that there would be about 700,000-800,000 visitors during the 1,000 year anniversary of the city. Thus, travel companies do not offer only tourism tours within only Hanoi, but also tours from Hanoi to Phu Tho – Ninh Binh – Bac Ninh and Ha Long Bay or from Hanoi to Yen Tu – Tuan Chau - Ha Long Bay tandSapa.

These tours will help avoid overcrowding in the city and provide tourists a chance to see well-known historical sites in Vietnam.