Opening of direct flight Vinh - Bangkok: Prospects for socio-economic development

(Baonghean) - Today, June 8, the direct flight Vinh - Bangkok, jointly opened by Vietravel and the People's Committee of Nghe An province, officially opened. Nghe An Newspaper reporters interviewed comrade Nguyen Xuan Duong - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee on the occasion of this event.

Vinh Airport. Photo: Duc Chuyen.

PV:Dear Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, information about the direct flight from Vinh to Bangkok was published by the media and newspapers quite early before the official opening date and immediately received the attention and positive feedback from the people of the province. What do you think about the significance of this new flight route?

Comrade Nguyen Xuan Duong:First of all, it must be affirmed that the Vinh - Bangkok direct flight route is of great significance in the economic, cultural and social development strategy of Nghe An province. We have many reasons to believe and hope for the effectiveness and value that this flight route brings. For example: geographically, Nghe An has the advantage of a shorter distance to famous tourist destinations in Thailand compared to Hanoi and many other major cities in the country; in terms of infrastructure, we have an international airport; in terms of people, the Nghe An community living and working in Thailand is relatively large, with a high demand for travel to visit relatives; in terms of economy, Nghe An currently has many investors operating strongly in the Thai market and currently Thai investors are also beginning to appear in Nghe An;...

We also believe that opening a direct flight to Bangkok is suitable for the needs and tastes of the people, especially when summer - the tourist season has arrived. Therefore, when Vietravel had the idea of ​​pioneering the opening of the Vinh - Bangkok flight route, the province highly agreed and closely coordinated with the travel agency, urgently implementing steps to put the flight into operation on schedule. In March 2016, a survey was conducted, a meeting was held to plan and develop a project. In April 2016, the operation plan was completed and approved, according to which the flight route was put into operation with a frequency of 1 flight/month, using the 180-seat A320 aircraft of Thai Vietjet. The price was also set, including the round-trip ticket price and the price including the package tour provided by Vietravel. In May 2016, we began to promote communication and product promotion. The result exceeded expectations: not only ensuring the first flight's operating capacity to reach 100%, but also in response to the great demand of the people, Vietravel and Nghe An Provincial People's Committee coordinated to organize 2 additional flights on June 12 and July 9 with 100% operating capacity.

Thailand's Grand Palace - an attractive tourist destination when joining tours in Thailand, Photo: Internet.

PV:Dear comrade, it is known that in addition to serving the usual needs such as visiting relatives, tourism,... the direct flight Vinh - Bangkok also aims to connect Nghe An with Thailand in terms of culture and economy. Can you be more specific?

Comrade Nguyen Xuan Duong:The tour program provided by Vietravel with the direct flight from Vinh to Bangkok is also called “Connecting Vi Giam folk songs with the land of smiles”. This is also one of the new features of this tourism product that the province is very interested in and has high expectations for. We know that in Thailand there are many Nghe An people in particular and Vietnamese people in general living and working. Nghe An people, we Vietnamese people come to Thailand because of the attractiveness and uniqueness of the culture and landscape of your country, but at the same time, it is also a golden opportunity to promote the culture and people of Vietnam and Nghe An.

Thailand has long been known as one of the top tourist destinations in Asia; by creating the best and most favorable conditions for our people to go there, we are creating conditions to access new ways of doing tourism, economics and culture. Good ways of doing things, modern thinking, coming from a country with many similarities, will contribute to broadening our senses, perspectives and actions. Learn from them to develop the economy, preserve cultural identity, and then through this connection, rise to become a bright spot on the inter-regional and inter-national tourism map.

PV:Recently, Hemaraj Group - a leading Thai enterprise in the field of industrial infrastructure development and active in many other fields has chosen Nghe An as the first destination to invest in Vietnam. Can we relate this event to the opening of the direct flight route Vinh - Bangkok, sir?

Comrade Nguyen Xuan Duong:The choice of Nghe An as the destination of Hemaraj Group can be listed for several reasons such as advantages in natural resources and human resources, new and large market, favorable geographical location for inter-regional and inter-national development... Traffic infrastructure is also one of the reasons that can be mentioned here.

The connection between the opening of the Vinh - Bangkok direct flight and the fact that Hemaraj chose Nghe An may not be direct and decisive. However, I believe that in the long run, these two factors will complement each other. It can also be seen from the perspective that once Hemaraj Group has invested in Nghe An, there will certainly be many other satellite investors and customers coming. At that time, the Vinh - Bangkok direct flight can be seen as a "preemptive" step of Nghe An with the trend of Thai businesses paying attention to the Vietnamese market.

In fact, even Vietnamese enterprises are eager to seek opportunities to develop and expand their markets to Thailand. There are investors who have repeatedly proposed to the province to consider building a transportation plan, moving from Nghe An to Thailand to bring double benefits to investors and the province.

Now, when the direct flight Vinh - Bangkok officially comes into operation, we believe that it will satisfy both the people and investors, and at the same time will contribute to the stronger development of the province's socio-economy.

PV:Thank you, comrade!

Thuc Anh

(Perform)