Vietnam Tour Guide

The number of tourists travelling on the April 30 holiday is expected to increase by 30% compared to last year as tourists will have a long holiday this year.

Tran Thi Viet Huong, Deputy General Director of Vietravel, said that clients began booking tours many days ago. Some 85% of tours have been booked to date, two weeks before the holiday. The travel firm is not accepting any more bookings for tours to Nha Tran, Phu Quoc Island, the central region’s heritage road, though more clients still want to book these tours. The same situation is occurring with outbound tours to Australia and the US.

Huong said that the travel firm may provide additional tours for May 2 and 3, after the holiday.

Domestic tour fees have increased by 10-15%, while travellers going abroad will have to pay $30-70 more for outbound tours. And despite the higher tour fees, clients still have to book tours soon if they don’t want to have to cancel tours because of no Air tickets.

Travel firms have attributed tour fee increases to high inflation. A representative of Vietravel said that air tickets, restaurant, transport fees all have increased, and travel firms have no other choice than requiring higher tour fees.

Hotels said that they would keep hotel room rates unchanged compared to the low-season fees. However, all the hotel rooms are occupied, mostly by travel firms.

In order to attract more clients, travel firms have been trying to offer many new tours with new attractive destinations besides traditional places.

Vietravel, for example, has launched 50 tours, domestic and outbound for 2-10 days. The tours have been diversified to meet the diversified demands of clients (eco-tourism, sports tourism). Travellers abroad will have the chance to go to Australia flying on the hotel Airbus 380, to Japan to admire cherry blossoms.

HCM City-based Ben Thanh Tourist has launched a new cruise tour in which tourists will have the chance to go along the seashore from Nha trang to Ha Long on the Hoa Sen ship. Hoa Sen has the capacity of 500 passengers, tonnage of 7,500DWT and average speed of 21 miles an hour.

Moroever, Ben Thanh Tourist also offers more choices for tourists: 4-6-day tours  to Nha Trang (VND1,725,000), Ha long bay (VND7,785,000), 6-day Da Nang – Ba Na – Hoi an – Hue – Phong Nha (VND6,494,000).

In general, tourists prefer tours on the sea to other destinations this holiday.

Kim Toan

Source: Vietnamnet