Hanoi (VNA) – The Vietnam Tourism Hanoi JSCdebuted its double-decker bus tour on November 30, offering free-of-chargeservices for passengers until December 2.

The buses, named Vietnam Sightseeing, will operate from 9amto 5:30pm daily at 30-minute intervals. Along the 14.8km route starting fromDien Hong Park on Ngo Quyen street, there will be 10 stops at which tourists areable to hop-on or hop-off. Its passing destinations consist of the VietnamMilitary History Museum, Thang Long imperial citadel, Quan Thanh Temple, TranQuoc Pagoda, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the Temple of Literature, Hoa Lo Prison, St.Joseph's Cathedral, the Vietnamese Women’s Museum, and the Hanoi Opera House.

This is the second route of its kind opened in the capital,with 40 percent of its destinations differing from that of the first routeprovided by the Hanoi Transport & Services Corporation. Tickets cost219,000 VND (9.39 USD) for 4 hours, 329,000 VND (14.11 USD) for 24 hours, and479,000 VND (20.54 USD) for 48 hours. By comparison, the respective prices ofthe first service are 300,000 VND (12.86 USD), 450,000 VND (19.3 USD), and650,000 VND (27.88 USD).

On May 30, the first double-decker city tour opened, withhop-on and hop-off services at 13 stops, running through 25 streets and takingtourists to 30 destinations around the city.

The buses run every 30 minutes from 9am to 5pm, and areequipped with an automatic multi-lingual system in Vietnamese, English,Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

According to the municipal Department of Tourism, thecapital city welcomed nearly 20 million visitors in the first nine months of 2018,an annual increase of 9.2 percent. Of the total, foreign visitors are estimatedat 4.3 million, up 20 percent year-on-year, and accounting for nearly 40percent of the total number of foreign tourists to Vietnam.

This year, Hanoi aims to welcome more than 25.4 milliontourists, including 5.5 million foreigners. -VNA