As inflation drives up the cost of
domestic tours, more and more holidaymakers are opting to travel abroad,
according to tour operators.

A Vietnam Airlines’ aeroplane at Ha Noi’s Noi Bai International Airport. People are starting to travel abroad more due to the rising cost of domestic tours. (Photo: VNS)

Nguyen
Cong Hoan, vice president of Ha Noi Redtours, blamed the depreciation of the
dong and rising oil and petrol prices for pushing up the cost of domestic tours.

“Our
tour packages have almost doubled in price compared to last year,” he said.

Hoan
added that this time last year, a Ha Noi-HCM round trip air ticket cost VND2
million (US$95). He said tickets now cost VND4 million ($190). “Even the cost of
hotels and cooking included in the tour have also increased,” he said. “Some of our
domestic tour packages have increased to VND8-10 million ($400-500) to meet
increasing costs, so it is very hard to attract local customers.”

He added
that many of his usual customers were now travelling to Thailand, Malaysia and
China instead.

Nguyen
Huy Hung, founder of nhiepanh.vn, a photographers’ forum which regularly
organises trips for members, recently booked a two-week trip to Nan Ning in
China. “Services in many destinations in Viet Nam are not professional, while
the price is high. Our members now prefer to travel abroad,” he said.

Luong
Duy Ngan, president of New Star Tour Company, also said the increasing price of
domestic tours had affected his business. A four-day package to Da Nang is
VND5.5 million ($250) and to Phu Quoc Island about VND9 million ($450).

Meanwhile, a seven-day trip to Singapore and Malaysia costs just $598. “The
slight difference between the price of domestic and international tours mean
many people are preferring to go abroad. Those places also offer better
opportunities for shopping,” he said.

“Meanwhile, Viet Nam Airlines only flies only once a day to Singapore, which
limits our options. But when it starts offering more flights next month, I think
more people will choose this package rather than a domestic tour,” he said.

Thai Van
Chung, HCM City Transport Association’s general secretary, said yesterday there
were plans afoot to raise transport fees by 8-10 per cent. The move is in
response to the Ministry of Finance’s decision to raise the cost of a litre of
petrol on Tuesday by VND2,000-VND2,800 ($0.10-0.14). The rise in transport costs
will make it even more expensive to go on holiday in Viet Nam, tour operators
said.

Pham
Trung Luong, deputy head of the Viet Nam Institute for Tourism Development
Research, said that if domestic tours failed to attract more local customers, a
large amount of foreign exchange would flow abroad.

“But we
can’t expect the price to go down when everything else is increasing. We can’t
limit people from travelling abroad either,” he said.

The
tourism development expert said the Government should focus on improving the
quality of domestic tours. “The tourism sector is giving priority to promoting
the domestic market. It should also have strategies in place to encourage tour
companies to offer decent promotion packages for domestic tours,” Luong said.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News