To date, no travel firm has made any official announcement about detailed tour fee reductions under the framework of the ‘Impressive Vietnam’ tourism promotion programme.

Foreign tourists in Vietnam

However, all that information about tour fee reductions is just ‘expected figures’, while they are still far from the official reductions. To date, no travel firm is certain about the exact tour fee reductions.

Travel firms say that they have been put under hard pressure as clients think that the firms deliberately have not slashed tour fees even though they have announced tour fee reductions.

When asked why travel firms had not made final decisions about the detailed tour fee reductions, Tran The Dung from Fiditour said that travel firms had not got enough information from partners as they have not wrapped up negotiations.

Dung added that if opening the websites of travel firms, one will not see any information about exact tour fee reduction levels. “This is like you hear about the programme on 50% price reduction at a supermart, but when you go there, you cannot see the prices quoted. The programme remains very vague,” Dung said.

He went on to say that most of the hotels registering to join the tourism promotion programme are located in Hanoi and HCM City. If the hotels in Hue city city, Nha Trang and Hoi An ancient town do not join the programme, travel firms would be unable to offer 30-50% tour fee reductions.

Detailed tour fees will be available next week

Nguyen Thi Khanh, Head of the Travel Division under the HCM City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, on February 10 affirmed that detailed tour fees would be announced next week instead of vague promises.

Khanh said that many hotels cut hotel room rates already by up to 30% in May 2008. And once the “Impressive Vietnam” programme is launched, the hotels can slash room rates by another 10% only.

Regarding the tour fee reduction levels, Khanh said that it will be very difficult to obtain the reductions of 30-50%.

Khanh explained that tour fees depend on many factors, not only on hotel room rates. Meanwhile, carriage service providers, airlines and meal service providers have not committed to service fee reductions.

VietNamNet/PL TPHCM