So who’s down to spring for a $300, 45-minute seaplane ride instead a $10, 5-hour ride on a Phuong Trang bus?

A Vietnamese tourism group plans to tap into the premium travel sector by offering seaplane services from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay and later between HCMC and Phan Thiet.

The Thien Minh Group is planning to import 2 seaplanes this July with flight trials commencing in August.

Thanh Nien reports that Thien Minh Group’s General Director, Tran Trong Minh, said that the Cessna Caravan seaplane service will launch in September, operating a route from Hanoi – Ha Long and there are plans in the works for a Ho Chi Minh City – Phan Thiet – Nha Trang route.

At the recent Vietnam Singapore Business Forum in HCMC, Nguyen Quy Phuong, director of the Travel Department under the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, encouraged tour operators to focus on developing high-value tourism services in Vietnam.

“In 2013, Singapore received 385,000 tourists from Vietnam. Meanwhile, only 195,000 Singaporeans visited Vietnam, mostly for business purposes, last year.

It is one of the examples showing that Vietnam has not done a good job of creating proper tourism services. It is the lack of new elements and high-quality resorts and entertainment services that did failed to attract international tourists,” he said.

Each Cesna can carry 12-18 passengers and the $4,000 flight fee will be divided among the passengers.

For the 30-minute Hanoi – Ha Long Bay route, one-way tickets will go for around $250 per person and an extra $100 fee will be added for a scenic flight around the UNESCO world heritage site.

Since the planned HCMC – Phan Thiet route is about 50km longer, we expect flights to be in the $300 range.

Who’s in?

[Thanh Nein // Photo via Sea Plane International]