Customers boldly 'pay', businesses busy opening tours for Tet At Ty 2025

There are still 40 days left until the Lunar New Year holiday, but some travel agencies in Ho Chi Minh City said they were surprised by the number of tour bookings during this peak season.

Customers are busy celebrating Tet early.

At Ben Thanh Tourist, Ms. Tran Phuong Linh, Director of Information Technology Marketing, said that the purchasing power of Lunar New Year tours is very positive. This year, customers bought Lunar New Year tours very early, so since the beginning of December, this business has completed more than 80% of the Lunar New Year tour plan with foreign travel . Domestic tours have sold 100% of the plan and are opening additional tours for sale.

The foreign tourism markets that are most popular and booked by tourists during the Lunar New Year are Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan (China), Turkey and Australia. For domestic tourism, the Northern mountainous provinces and the Central Highlands are still the priority destinations during the Tet holiday. This year, tours to the West are booked by many customers.

This year, New Year's Eve is close to Lunar New Year, so tourists are booking their Tet tours earlier than usual. (Photo: P. Minh)

“At present, most of BenThanh Tourist's domestic Tet tours are fully booked. We are opening additional tours to meet customer demand. This is quite a surprise, because usually foreign tours are completed earlier than domestic tours, because domestic tourists have the habit of booking tours quite close to the departure date. This shows that tourists are having clear changes in shopping behavior, and giving top priority to service quality and experience content in the tour program, demonstrated by choosing to buy early to have more options,” said Ms. Linh.

BenThanh Tourist representative added that this Tet At Ty, airfares and service prices increased quite high, causing Tet tour prices to increase by 4-20% compared to normal departure tour prices. However, this price, when compared with the price of Tet Giap Thin 2024 tour, is because the business has worked early with airlines and service providers to get good deals.

The company also chooses to focus on routes and points where airfare prices do not increase too much, thereby building a series of Tet tour products with reasonable prices. Thanks to that, the number of tours booked by customers at the company is not much affected by prices.

Mr. Pham Anh Vu, Communications Director of Viet Travel Company, also said he was quite surprised by the number of early Lunar New Year tours sold. Currently, this travel company has completed about 50% of its foreign tours. This year, the trend of customers choosing is still mainly Asian countries, because of convenient travel and very good prices during Tet.

For domestic tours, customers in the southern provinces and cities mainly choose sightseeing and entertainment tours in the northern and central regions. This year, the number of visitors to Du Lich Viet is expected to increase by 20-30% compared to last year. However, this travel agency representative said that the story of streamlining the apparatus that is being implemented also makes the company consider the story of the number of customers buying tours that may be affected.

“Currently we have not seen any signs of impact, but we are also building a plan that takes into account this contingency plan,” Mr. Vu informed.

Ho Chi Minh City is always one of the entertainment destinations chosen by domestic and foreign tourists at the end of the year and during the traditional Tet holiday. (Photo: P. Minh)

Vietluxtour also said it has achieved about 70% of its 2025 Lunar New Year tour business plan.

Ms. Tran Thi Bao Thu, Marketing & Communications Director of Vietluxtour Travel, said that the number of Vietnamese tourists traveling during Tet is increasing, because Tet is one of the longest holidays of the year and is convenient for families, especially multi-generational families, to arrange time to travel together.

In recent years, tourists tend to book Tet tours outside of peak times, that is, departing before Tet and ending the tour before or after the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd days of Tet, to get a good tour price and avoid overloading services.

No gathering for New Year's Eve

This year, New Year’s Day falls in the middle of the week, and is too close to Lunar New Year, so travel agencies say that most of their customers are going on holiday during the traditional New Year. The companies are not focusing on this holiday but are planning regular tours for the rest of the year, from Christmas onwards.

Mr. Pham Anh Vu said that at this time, we are only focusing on Lunar New Year tours. As for New Year's Eve, the company is only planning short tours around Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi .

For foreign tourism, tours are also built before or after January 1, 2025, in the form of regular year-end vacations. For example, this year's New Year falls on Wednesday, so tours depart on Thursday and Friday to fit the weekend. But from the first week of December, long-distance tours and foreign tours for Christmas and New Year are no longer for sale.

BenThanh Tourist representative also said that this unit is focusing on plans to open sales of Lunar New Year tours and post-Tet tour products, high-value tours to distant and new markets to increase customer experience.

For the New Year's Eve tourism market, the company does not open tours widely but focuses on prominent markets that attract the most tourists. Hong Kong (China) and Japan are the hottest markets during the New Year 2025 at BenThanh Tourist, with an occupancy rate of about 75 - 85%, depending on the route.

During the New Year holiday, tours around Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are expected to be crowded due to the short break. (Illustration: HL)

Some good selling tours are Thailand Bangkok - Safari World - Pattaya, 5 days 4 nights, departing December 28, price 10.99 million; Hong Kong tour - Pacific Mountain - Nuoc Can Bay - Avenue of Stars, 4 days 3 nights, departing December 29, price 15.59 million; Japan tour Osaka - Kyoto - Gifu - Shirakawago Ancient Village, 6 days 5 nights, departing December 28, price 26.99 million...

Ms. Tran Bao Thu said that Vietluxtour has prepared its year-end business plan since the end of the second quarter of 2024. It is predicted that during the end-of-year travel season (New Year's Day, Lunar New Year), the MICE, inbound, outbound and domestic individual tour markets will have good growth rates. The expected growth rate for the end-of-year season in mid-markets is about 20-25% compared to the same period last year.

The company is promoting many group contracts for year-end travel programs of many businesses, and entering the peak season of inbound in target markets of Europe, Australia, America, Northeast Asia...

Vietluxtour also said that it is renewing and diversifying its city tour products in Ho Chi Minh City, focusing on cultural, historical, culinary products and night tourism experiences in the city, such as the routes Saigon in the past - Ho Chi Minh City today, Saigon Special Forces Tour, Memories of Saigon - Cho Lon, District 1 - Night Colors... with many very good signals to attract customers at the end of the year, this Lunar New Year.

According to the assessment, the bustling customer market will last until the end of January 2025, due to the habit of many people booking services close to the departure date.

Where do you like to go this Tet season?

A survey published by Booking.com last week revealed the destinations that Vietnamese and international tourists are searching for this year's Tet holiday. Domestically, the most popular destinations are Da Lat, Nha Trang and Phu Quoc. The number of searches for Da Lat increased by 300% compared to last year, Nha Trang increased by 200% and Phu Quoc increased by 180%.

Next are big cities like Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, where many tourists want to go thanks to their rich history, vibrant culture and rich cuisine.

Vung Tau, Hoi An, Sa Pa, Mui Ne are also options for guests who want a quiet space to relax and explore ancient temples.

For foreign countries, Thailand, Japan and Malaysia are in the Top 3 countries most searched by Vietnamese tourists for international travel during Lunar New Year.

In addition, more and more Vietnamese tourists are interested in new experiences, with Dubai (UAE) appearing on the list of favorites.

Mr. Varun Grover, Country Manager of Booking.com in Vietnam, said that this Tet season, Vietnamese travelers are rewriting their travel guides. They tend to combine familiar, favorite destinations with more new destinations. It can be seen that Vietnamese travelers are looking for destinations that allow them to connect with nature, with their loved ones and themselves.

Ha Linh

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/khach-manh-dan-xuong-tien-doanh-nghiep-tat-bat-mo-tour-choi-tet-at-ty-2025-ar914011.html