When asked about the response of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) to the complaints by travel firms that the 30-50% tour fee reductions are really shocking, VNAT said that the announced 30-50% just the average reductions.

Foreign tourists in Hai Phong City (Source: haiphong.gov.vn)

There are a lot of measures to attract international tourists. Why has VNAT initiated the program on tour fee reductions?

The goal of ‘Impressive Vietnam’ is to polish the image of Vietnam’s tourism, since Vietnam received a bad reputation that it was more expensive than other markets in the region.

However, I have to say that VNAT does not intend to dump on the market as tourism needs to have its value. Vietnam does not follow other countries in slashing tour fees sharply by 80-90%. In fact, if they slash the tour fees by 80-90%, they have to seek to get money from travelers from other services. We plan serious and reasonable tour fee reductions which are acceptable for hotels.

To date, VNAT has received the applications to join ‘Impressive Vietnam’ from seventy-two hotels of three to five stars. Of these hotels, sixty have offered the room rate reductions of 30-50%, and twelve others registered lower reductions. However, all of these are just considered as the registrations to join the program, while the exact rates will only be available when programming the ninety-nine tours.

The travelers who go under the tourism promotion program, for the first time available in Vietnam prove to be selective travelers who will go under ready-designed tours and on the targeted key markets.

These are just a part of the travelers to Vietnam, while promotion will not be applied to business travelers, separated travelers or those traveling to Vietnam for other purposes. Therefore, I believe that the hotels’ turnover will not bear any influence, while their turnover will even increase.

The thing we need to do now is to design the tours (ninety-nine tours as announced) but in more details and with detailed prices. After that, VNAT will officially announce the exact fees for every tour. The tour fee structure will not be explained because this is the business secret.

Some tours may see the fees decrease by 10%, others by 50%, and even by 70%. Therefore, the 30-50% tour fee reductions are just the most common figures.

Some travel firms have said that the announced 30-50% tour fee reductions prove to be uninformative. Does it mean the 30-50% decrease in comparison with the signed contracts or with the previously announced service fee?

As for some hotels which have slashed the room rates already, the two sides will re-discuss to choose the most suitable rates. Besides, I have to repeat that the tour fee reductions will depend on tours and markets, while the reductions will not be applied to all travelers, and this does not mean the big sale.

However, if comparing with the tour fees in early 2008, one would see that the tour fees will decrease by 50%. However, enterprises still applaud the promotion program as they believe they will benefit from the program.

A meeting between VNAT and travel firms, hotels and transport firms was gathered on January 16 in HCM City. Will there be another meeting this week in Hanoi?

I don’t think we need to gather another meeting if enterprises have agreed on the promotion program. Travel firms have been gathering all the strength to calculate the tour fees to make the tours salable to travelers. This is the most important thing.

It is expected that on January 20, 2009, there will be a meeting between Vietnam’s airlines and representatives from the enterprises exploring French and West European markets, then other markets like Australia, ASEAN and Japan. In general, enterprises have reached basic agreement as they have become more open.

What would you say on the opinion about the slow implementation of ‘Impressive Vietnam?’

I can say for sure that Vietnam has not been slow in its promotion program implementation. Thailand, for example, has launched the ‘Thailand Sorry’ program after the crisis. To date, only 24 Thai hotels have announced the room rate reductions, while tours have not been fully designed. It has taken them one month.

Meanwhile, we launched the promotion program before the opening of the ASEAN Tourism Forum ATF 2009 and the program has been introduced to the forum’s participants.

Vietnam organized free tours to 1,100 participants to popularize Vietnam’s tourism, a record level of the ASEAN’s tourism forums.

Did VNAT consult with enterprises when naming the tourism promotion program as ‘Impressive Vietnam?’

‘Impressive Vietnam’ is the name suggested at the meeting on December 24, 2008 in Da Nang City, which gathered hotels and travel firms. The name was then approved by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Ha Yen