VietNamNet Bridge – The bone chilling, severe cold in the north has prompted people to go to the south where they can enjoy the warm sunshine.

A lot of people say they are planning to go to the south to enjoy Tet holiday there because they need to avoid the prolonged cold weather in the north. Having realized the demand, a travel firm is rushing to design and sell tours to the south.

The travel firms all said that the main clients of the “cold avoidance tours” are old people, who cannot stand the cold weather in the north. Du Lich Viet, for example, has launched the tours called “the sunshine in the south” that aim to serve elderly people who wish to celebrate Tet in HCM City or neighboring provinces.

Tran Van Long, Director of Du Lich Viet travel firm, said that travelers will fly from Hanoi to HCM City or to Can Tho City. During the eight day tour, travelers will have opportunities to visit HCM City and then they will go to the western region. After that, they will stay in the beach town Vung Tau. The tour fee is relatively “soft” at 10 million dong.

If travelers want to stay extra days to enjoy the beach in Vung Tau, Du Lich Viet will charge additional hotel room rate, about 300,000 dong per person per day.

Especially, travelers will have the opportunity to enjoy Tet, southern style, right in the homes of local residents.

Long said that though the demand for tours to the south is high the opportunity has not been exploited, though the demand is high. It is because of the low profits of the tours. “I decided to sell the tours after hearing from a friend that his friends wantedto celebrate Tet in the south because it is too cold in the north,” Long said.

Long went on to say that besides “the sunshine in the south”, Du Lich Viet is providing tour to Nguyen Hue city flower boulevard. With the tour, travelers will depart on the afternoon of the first day of the New Lunar Year from Hanoi. After landing in HCM City, travelers will go sightseeing the city. The focus of the sightseeing is the Nguyen Hue flower boulevard. After that, travelers will go to Phan Thiet, where they can relax, swim in the sea, something that they cannot do in the north at this time of the year.  Finally they will celebrate Tet with local residents in the central region. The five-day tour costs fee of 8.5 million dong.

Long said he regrets that he did not anticipate the demand for traveling to the south earlier because the travel firm is not well prepared to attract clients. Du Lich Viet hopes to serve 500 clients for the tours to the south. However, Long said that this is a high goal.

Analysts say the demand for traveling to the south to avoid the cold weather in the north is relatively big, but travel firms have not paid much attention to the tourism products because the main clients of the tours are elderly people. Besides, they think that northern people are not in the habit of traveling on Tet holiday. They would rather stay at home to celebrate Tet with their families or friends.

However, they said there have been some changes in the habits of northern people. A lot of Hanoians plan to go abroad this Tet, because this year’s Tet holiday is expected to be a long holiday (eight days).

The fees of the tours to some Asian countries have increased by 15-20 percent in comparison with the previous year. However, many people have decided to delay the booking tours because they are hoping that travel firms will offer discounts on pre-Tet days.

As for the 6-day tour to Singapore, the current tour fee is $700 per person, while the tour fee for normal days is just $550.

Travel firms think that the number of outbound tourists this year may increase by 30 percent in comparison with the previous Tet. Therefore, Nguyen Van My, Director of Lua Viet travel firm, said that that the fees of all services, from vehicle rents to hotel room rates, have increased,.

In Nha Trang, Da Lat and Phan Thiet, the “hot” destinations for tourists, the hotel room rates have increased dramatically. In particular, 3-star and more luxurious hotels do not have enough rooms to meet the demand, even though the hotel room rate has increased by 20-30 percent. As for other hotels, the room rates have increased by 100-400 percent. Especially, tourists traveling outside of a tour group may be charged rates which are 10 times higher than normal rates.

C. V