The upcoming Vietnamese Lunar New Year (Tet) will be a profitable time for domestic travel companies and tour operators.

Many of them have already sold out more than half of their tours planned for Tet and foresee a growth of 12-30 per cent in business compared to last Tet.

Besides short-haul tours to some Asian countries such as Malaysia, Hong Kong and China, outbound tours to long-haul destinations, such as South Korea, Japan, Australia, the US and Dubai, are now favoured by many Vietnamese holidaygoers.

Dau tu (Investment) newspaper quoted Nguyen Tien Dat, deputy director of TransViet, as saying that his company had sold out over 90 per cent of tours for Tet holidays, with buyers of long-haul outbound tours making up 20-30 per cent of the total.

Ta Thi Cam Vinh, who is in charge of outbound tours at BenThanh Tourist, said her company’s tours to South Korea, Dubai and Australia were fully booked.

The number of customers booking overseas tours this Tet season has increased by 20-25 per cent. The cost of these tours has also gone up by 20 per cent due to higher air fares, Vinh told the Thoi bao kinh te Sai Gon (Sai Gon Economics Times) newspaper.

“With sufficient airfares, we could sell more tours, thanks to local people’s demand for travelling, which is considered the highest in the past few years,” she said.

Fiditour has also expressed optimism about the market, hoping the number of tour buyers will rise by 30-40 per cent over last Tet.

Tran Thi Bao Thu, director of marketing and communications at Fiditour, said tours to Australia, Europe and Dubai had been fully booked since the end of December 2017. The company had to add more seats in the tours to South Korea and Taiwan due to high demand.

Vietravel representatives told the Dau tu newspaper that the company expected to serve 38,000 tourists travelling overseas during the upcoming holiday season, up 20-25 per cent over last Tet.

The company had earlier introduced some tours taking tourists to India on chartered flights with a 30 per cent discount. This was to meet the Vietnamese people’s demand for spiritual tourism in the upcoming holidays.

Besides outbound tours, Vietravel has also launched Free&Easy tours, which comprise airfares and hotel rooms, for families to eight domestic destinations, including Hue, Da Nang, Nha Trang and Phu Quoc.

It has also added spiritual visits to some temples in the north, such as Bai Dinh-Trang An, Tay Thien and But Thap, to its tours for Tet.

Say “no” to low-quality tours

Despite the peak demand for travelling during Tet, representatives of many tour providers said they would not compete by slashing prices while vowing to ensure quality of their tours.

Nguyen Hong Dai, director of APT Travel, which reported all its tours to over 65 domestic and overseas destinations as booked, said his company had to sign contracts with partners three months ahead of Tet. The aim was to offer customers affordable tours as well as ensure tour quality during the peak period.

According to Vietravel reprentatives, the prices of tours for Tet are higher than in the normal period due to huge demand. However, if customers applied the promotions of tour providers, they could afford budget tours. — VNS