Despite the economic difficulties that have forced people to curb spending habits, the number of travelers has not decreased. In order to attract travelers in this difficult period, travel firms have been trying to launch products with reasonable prices.

It’s time to book tours for April 30 holiday

Though the April 30 holiday is in one month, travel firms say people have begun booking tours and believe that the number of travelers will not be lower than last year’s holiday. As for Saigontourist, Doan Thi Thanh Tra Public Relation Director, said the firm has been preparing for the tours on the occasion of Hung King death anniversary and April 30 holiday since early March. Saigon Tourist is planning to organize 250 tours, both domestic and outbound tours to serve 14,000 Vietnamese travelers. The tours that still most attract travelers are the ones to Nha Trang, Phan Thiet, Da Nang, Con Dao and Phu Quoc Island. Meanwhile, the most wanted foreign destinations are Australia, Europe, the US, Cambodia, the Philippines, Thailand, China, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Travel firms said that at this moment, Vietnamese travelers are not only interested in domestic tours, but in outbound tours as well. Nguyen Minh Man, Head of the Communication Division of Vietravel said in the last two years, for every ten travelers there are six people booking domestic tours and four booking outbound tours. The ratio has changed to 4-6. Asia in general, and Southeast Asia proves to be the main destination for Vietnamese travelers.

Tour fee increases

Huynh Van Quy, Secretary General of the HCM City Tourism Association, said that the goods price and service fee increases have forced travel firms to increase tour fees. The expenses on meals have increased by 10-15 percent, while accommodation service fee has increased by 10 percent, and the transport fee has increased even more sharply. Quy said travel firms are trying to keep the tour fees unchanged for some tours, but they have to raise the fees by 10-15 percent for others.

However, it seems tour price hikes do not worry travel firms much. Dat Viet quoted Nguyen Minh Quyen, Deputy Director of Ben Thanh Tourist, as saying that Vietnamese people will still travel with the sums of money they have: if they have a lot of money, they will spend a lot of money, and vice versa. Besides, despite difficulties, enterprises still follow annual tourism programs.

Quyen said the number of travelers booking tours has not decreased. However, travelers seem to shorten the travel time or buy the tours that fit their pockets. Meanwhile, Ben Thanh only has raised the tour fee by 10 percent in order to attract travelers.

Commenting about the tour fees this year, Nguyen Van My, Director of Lua Viet Travel Firm, said that the tour fee increases is inevitable, since the prices of goods have increased sharply. However, he said that in many cases, some service providers just make corrupt use of the situation to raise service fees.

Meanwhile, other local newspapers reported that tour fee increases and the tsunami in Japan have worried travel firms. Thoi Bao Kinh Te Saigon has reported that a lot of Vietnamese travelers have canceled tours to Japan for fear of exposure to radioactive waves. It also said that many travel firms plan to ask for tax reductions in order to ease their difficulties.

Dat Viet