US Veterans Want Organized Tours to Vietnam War and Other Sites
Several US veterans who fought in the Vietnam War are calling for the launch of well-organized theme tours to Vietnamese sites where they operated, an ex-interpreter during the War has informed Thanh Nien.
Le Thanh Giai, in an e-mail to the newspaper, said many US veterans, inspired by the story of a young North Vietnamese doctor’s diary they read on Thanh Nien’s English-language website, www.thanhniennews.com, were hoping to return to Vietnam.
Phil Anderson, who was in the 25th Division during the War, complained about the inflexibility and disorganization of a tour to Vietnam offered by an operator earlier this year.
“The sites we toured were of no historic significance, with the guides always in a hurry and organizers paying scant attention to the choice of food, leaving me and others frustrated, and costing much more than expected,” he complained.
Not a single Vietnamese tourism agency had any form of promotion, while Anderson and other veterans had never heard of Saigontourist [one of Vietnam’s top travel agencies].
Suggestions
“Vietnam’s travel agencies should organize trips to former battlefields and bases like An Khe, Pleiku, Con Thien, Chu Lai and Binh Dinh, where my comrades and I operated,” Wells, another of Giai’s correspondents, suggested.
Meetings should also be arranged with former North Vietnamese soldiers which most of his friends were ready to join, Wells said.
According to Danny. L. Jacks, chair of the G-75 Ranger Association, Vietnamese travel agencies should find out what needs to be incorporated in such tours and release manuals for veteran-tourists.
US veterans, most of whom wished to visit their former adversaries regularly, made up a huge but untapped market, Jacks said, and so well-organized tours and hotels exclusively for the veterans would surely be welcomed enthusiastically.
Wells’ friend David William also suggested starting tours for those who had lost family members in the Vietnam War.
Jerry Schuster, editor in chief of Sua Sponte, a G-75 publication, believed Vietnam’s tourism would benefit greatly if newspapers joined the effort.
“The Vietnamese media is highly persuasive and capable of shoring buttressing endangered traditions and helping local authorities fully develop the potentials and uniqueness of their areas,” he said.
Wells added Vietnam’s rich natural materials like bamboo and rattan had not been made full use in its tourism efforts. Besides, craftsmen could help the tourism industry put up traditional infrastructure using natural materials, he said.
He cited the chalets at Binh Quoi resort in Ho Chi Minh City as being appropriate for all terrains.
Written by Le Thanh Giai – Translated by Ngoc Hanh
Story from Thanh Nien News
Published: 26 October, 2005, 21:14:14 (GMT+7)
Copyright Thanh Nien News
