Residents in Bac Ninh Province sing quan ho songs during the Lim Festival. The tourism sector has launched a promotional campaign “Impresive Viet Nam”, which includes discounted tours.

The signals gave cause for optimisim, said Deputy-Director Nguyen Manh Cuong of the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT).

A further boost to international travellers is being tipped with the announcement of a 30 per cent fare reduction to travel companies by the national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines.

The domestic tour discounts are a result of the promotional campaign, “Impressive Viet Nam”, under which 99 all-in tours will be discounted between January and September to lure more domestic and international travellers.

Many regions had managed post health tourism results last month, Cuong said, the outstanding ones being Quang Ninh province with 28,000 travellers, Khanh Hoa province (81,000), Da Lat City in Lam Dong Province (110,000) and Binh Thuan Province (31,000).

However, the number of tourists travelling to Ha Noi capital during the Lunar New Year festivals decreased by 10-30 per cent against the previous year.

In the major tourism centres, room occupancy in most high-class hotels had reached more than 80 per cent, particularly in typical provinces like Quang Ninh, Khanh Hoa and Lam Dong; some 3-5 star hotels were running at full capacity.

“It was a result of both the promotional campaign, “Impressive Viet Nam”, and creating greater co-operation between tourism companies, hotels and shopping hubs to lure domestic and foreign travellers,” Cuong said.

A 50 per cent VAT reduction helped make the tour fee discount plan feasible.

The statistics augered well for this year’s target of 24-25 million domestic tourists, he said.

Meanwhile, five major travel firms in the north, including Vietnamtourism, Hanoitourism and Ha Noi Redtours, have joined forces with Vietnam Airlines to slash tour fees.

The airline said it would cut fares by 30 per cent within two weeks to customers of travel companies and that the discount would last till the end of next month.

Vietnamtourism Deputy-Director in Ha Noi Nguyen Thi Kim Thanh said her company had decided to accept a lower profit to stimulate domestic demand.

Special fees would target the Cuu Long River Delta, a difficult tour for tourists and one where the fees had been higher than those for tours to Thailand or China.

VNAT official Nguyen Anh Tuan said the agency had planned a meeting with travel firms and hotels from HCM City and neighbouring provinces to discuss the stimulation. A similar meeting was held in the north.

About 400,000 international tourists visited Viet Nam in January and VNAT plans to better that number by promoting Viet Nam’s image in both domestic and overseas markets through advertising on buses of big cities of the UK such as London and Manchester, on BBC, in the Heritage magazine and by a roadshow in Australia.

VNAT travel department director Vu The Binh said price cuts were vital to boost tourism immediately, given that improving the quality of products and services would take more time.

Managing director of the biggest State-owned tour operator, Saigontourist, Vo Anh Tai, said price incentives were the most effective bailout for the industry, and that the currently shrinking demand would bounce back with price cuts.

This was supported by the United Nation World Tourism Organisation which said the tourism industry had the ability to recover earliest and urged the industry to promote investment and to improve its management and services to lure travellers.

VietNamNet/VNS