VietNamNet
Bridge – Though the four-day April 30 holiday is long, many Hanoians would
rather stay at home rather than taking tours, because they have decided to curb
expenses in the price storm.

It’s not the right time to travel

With the
total income of 20 million dong a month, previously, Mai and her husband always
had enough money to cover all expenses of the three-member family and reward
themselves with attractive tours on holidays.

However,
over the last year, though their income remains unchanged, the prices of goods
and services has increased by two fold. The “price storm” has frightened Mai.

“The prices
increased many times previously, but they did not affect my family, because
with the income of 20 million dong, we were considered high income earners.
However, the latest sharp price increase has forced me to change the way I
spend,” Mai complained.

In fact,
Mai and her husband still have money to pay for a tour on April 30 holiday.
However, Mai has decided to stay at home. “The petroleum price has increased
sharply by 6000 dong per liter just within one month. Meanwhile, petroleum
distributors still incur losses. I am afraid that the petroleum prices will
increase further, thus leading to price increases of a lot of other products,”
she said. “Therefore, it would be better to cut down expenses beginning right
now”.

“By staying
at home, we would save nearly 10 million dong,” Mai estimated.

Tour fees on the rise, tourism sites
not attractive

Hung, who
lives on Hang Dao street,
said that he always traveled on long holidays, but he does not intend to go
anywhere this April 30 holiday.

Hung has to
change his habits because the tour fees have increased too sharply. He has been
told by travel firms that the tour fees have increased by 15-30 percent,
because the transportation fee, hotel room rates and other service fees all
have increased.

In fact,
there is another reason that has led to the decision to stay at home. Hung said
that tourism sites are always very crowded on holidays. Therefore, Hung does
not feel good when traveling to the sites: he always has to watch out for his wallet
because of theft.

“Travelers
spend money to relax. However, in fact, they cannot relax on holidays, because
they have to elbow through crowds and struggle with pickpockets and robbery,”
Hung said. “Besides, many tourism sites have become uninteresting, and I don’t
know what to do except sightseeing”.

A difficult period for travel firms

Even
Vietravel, a big travel firm, also complained that it is really difficult to do
business now.

Nguyen Minh
Man, a senior executive of Vietravel, said the number of travelers on Hung King
Death Anniversary and April 30 holidays is estimated to increase by 20-25
percent only, much lower than the expected level of 35 percent.

Nguyen Hai
Quan from AMI Travel Firm, also complained that there are not many travelers as
expected. Quan said his firm has to raise prices by five percent, but the price
increase is not big enough to make profit because the coach leasing fee has
increased by 25 percent, while hotel room rate has increased by 20 percent and
meal services have increased by 5-10 percent.

“Especially,
many hotels and restaurants have not fixed prices because they are still
listening to the news for updates,” Quan said.

Meanwhile,
Man from Vietravel said Vietravel has raised the tour fees by 10 percent after efforts
to negotiate with partners to stabilize service fees. Though the 10 percent
increase is modest, Vietravel cannot set higher fees because it wants to retain
travelers.

N. Yen