Tet tourism begins to bustle

At this time, the demand for buying Tet tours and booking Tet travel services is increasing. Many events and festivals are also being urgently prepared to meet the needs of people for entertainment and spring travel.

Attracting customers through Tet customs

It is expected that from January 18 to 21, the 2024 Vietnamese Tet Festival with the theme "Vietnamese Tet past and present" organized by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism and the Vietnam Culinary Culture Association (VCCA) will take place at Le Van Tam Park (District 1, Ho Chi Minh City). This is one of the annual activities every Tet holiday with many activities imbued with national cultural identity.

With the main activities of "Eating Tet, traveling during Tet, playing Tet, watching Tet, Tet market", this year's festival is expected to attract and welcome over 80,000 domestic and international tourists. Mr. Nguyen Quoc Ky, Chairman of VCCA, representative of the co-organizer, said that through the 2024 Vietnamese Tet festival, the event aims to accompany the tourism industry to attract international tourists through cultural festivals, cuisine and real-life experiences.

Du lịch Tết bắt đầu nhộn nhịp- Ảnh 1. — Food festivals in Ho Chi Minh City attract large numbers of locals and tourists. Photo: HOANG TRIEU

The 2024 Vietnamese Tet Festival is one of the potential events of the city's tourism industry, exploiting and promoting the cultural elements of the traditional Tet. According to Mr. Le Truong Hien Hoa, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, the event contributes to creating a diversity of tourism products and community living spaces for residents and tourists. Ho Chi Minh City is positioning itself as a city of events and festivals and is forming an event-within-an-event model. A series of festival events lasting from New Year's Day to Lunar New Year 2024 promises to attract more tourists.

It is expected that from January 21 to February 7, the construction of Nguyen Hue Flower Street for the Year of the Dragon will take place. With the theme "Spring of love, Tet reunion", Nguyen Hue Flower Street 2024 marks the spectacular return of the Year of the Dragon after a 12-year cycle.

Since its first implementation in 2004, Nguyen Hue Flower Street Tet 2024 has turned 21 years old. Mr. Truong Duc Hung, General Director of Saigontourist Group and Head of the Organizing Committee of Nguyen Hue Flower Street Tet 2024, said that this is a cultural project with great attraction and importance and Saigontourist Group has been making efforts to create a unique space for spring travel and Tet experience.

Tours and independent travel are both bustling.

A popular travel trend this year is to travel independently, in addition to booking tours and services from travel companies. Ms. Kim Van (living in District 4, Ho Chi Minh City) said that her family of four has booked air tickets and hotel accommodation for a trip to Taiwan (China) from December 29 to the 4th day of Tet.

"Booking a tour through a travel company is fine, but because my family has elderly members and I'm afraid of having to go on a tour, I decided to go on my own, even though the cost of going on my own might be higher than buying a package tour," said Ms. Van.

Many others also chose to drive from Ho Chi Minh City to the Central and Northern provinces, combining spring travel before and after Tet, in the context of high airfare prices. Mr. Ngoc Thanh (living in Thu Duc City) said that his family and 3 other friends had planned to go home by private car and combine spring travel. Instead of flying about 2 hours to go home but with high costs, he and his friends decided to book hotels at tourist destinations on the way back, such as stopping in Nha Trang and Hue before returning to Nghe An. The total travel time is about 3 days and 2 nights, but in return, the whole family can combine travel.

Regarding travel companies, Ms. Nguyen Nguyet Van Khanh, Marketing Director of Vietravel Tourism Company, said that customer demand is increasing. It is expected that this Tet, with hundreds of domestic and international spring tours launched by Vietravel since mid-November 2023, the company will serve more than 150,000 visitors. Currently, there have been more than 76,640 visitors registering to buy Tet tours at Vietravel nationwide, of which about 58% of tourists choose foreign tours for their Tet trip. The selected destinations are Asian tours such as Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, China, Japan, etc.

This year, the tourism industry in Ho Chi Minh City expects to welcome about 122,000 international visitors, with room occupancy rates of about 90% or higher. Revenue is estimated at 15,000 billion VND.