Domestic tours are 'inferior' in the summer because of airfares

At the Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Festival, companies offer hundreds of discounted tours for the summer travel season, with foreign tours being the most popular because of their competitive prices.

At the Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Festival 2024 taking place from April 4 to 7, travel businesses offered many preferential prices to customers when "closing" tours, making early deposits for both domestic and international products, to heat up tourism demand before the two holidays of April 30 and summer.

Tourists learn about tours at the Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Festival 2024 on April 4. Photo: Bich Phuong

On the first day of the event, travel companies said that foreign tours to Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia in the mid-range price segment were being booked the most.

Mr. Thi Quoc Duy, Director of BenThanh Tourist's retail travel center, said that in the past two years, mid-range foreign tours and combos have not shown any signs of cooling down. On the occasion of April 30 and the upcoming summer, the company's tours to Japan and Korea have received the most attention and bookings. Next are Southeast Asia tours to Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia. China tours, with a variety of destinations and prices, from 9 to 19 million VND, are also on the rise in the number of customers booking during the summer.

"Overseas tours in Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia priced at 7-15 million VND continuously dominate domestic air tours because of their competitive prices," said Mr. Duy.

At the Ho Chi Minh City tourism festival, travel agencies offered hundreds of domestic flight tours with discounts ranging from 1-3 million VND. However, the discounted prices were the same or insignificantly different from international tours.

For example, the 5-day, 4-night East-Northwest tour departing from Ho Chi Minh City has a price reduction of about 8.9 million VND, higher than the 5-day, 4-night Thailand tour to Bangkok - Pattaya, the latter price reduction of nearly 7 million VND. The Singapore - Malaysia tour and the Taiwan tour have the same price, about 10.7-11.7 million VND, higher than some domestic tours by 1-3 million VND.

Ms. Ngoc Thanh, 60 years old, living in Ho Chi Minh City, said she came to the Tourism Festival to look for tours to China this summer, because this country has many destinations with diverse landscapes, culture, and services. Before the epidemic, Ms. Thanh used to go on popular tours in China such as Beijing - Shanghai - Hangzhou. This year, many destinations in China are open, so she plans to book a tour to Kunming and Lijiang, priced at about 20-21 million VND.

Ms. Hanh said she has been to almost every domestic destination from the South to the North, and the experience is almost the same every year, while "the price is not much cheaper than going abroad, so I choose to explore new countries," she said.

Ms. Van Nhi, from Vung Tau, said she is looking for tours to Taiwan on April 30 for her family of four. Her family chose to travel abroad this holiday because they have never been to Taiwan and are afraid of the crowded scenes at domestic tourist destinations.

"I find the price of the tour to Taiwan is not too high, about 11-12 million VND per person, the cost is equal to a 4-5 star vacation in Phu Quoc or a tour to the North, suitable for family finances," said Ms. Khanh.

Travel agencies said that the increase in domestic airfares has pushed up tour prices in some Central and Northeast regions, forcing Vietnamese tourists to choose to go abroad or switch to booking land tours such as Phan Thiet and Mui Ne. From there, tourists travel to Phan Rang and Nha Trang.

Mr. Quoc Duy said that the obvious change in the domestic tourism market this summer is the return of train tourism. The 5-star train tour from Hue to Da Nang , which has just been put into operation, has attracted a lot of interest from customers.

Inside the 5-star tourist train Hue - Da Nang, March 26. Photo: Vo Thanh

"Before 2019, domestic air tours had a clear difference compared to train tours when 80% of customers chose to travel by plane, 20% chose to travel by train or road to save time. But this year, the percentage of customers choosing to experience the train is up to 40-45%," said Mr. Duy.

Ms. Huynh Phan Phuong Hoang, Deputy General Director of Vietravel Tourism Company, also commented that the train experience brings a new breeze to domestic tourism during the peak summer season in the context of high airfares. Since the beginning of January, the company has coordinated with Vietnam Railways Corporation to implement the 5-star train project across Vietnam. Currently, the company has launched a 5-star train tour from Hue to Da Nang for 7.3 million VND, departing every Sunday.

Travel agencies assess that the potential domestic summer tourism market tends to be concentrated mainly on MICE (business travel combined with business) customers. In addition, individual domestic tourists often choose to travel independently and have the habit of booking services close to the holiday date, 1-2 weeks in advance.

Bich Phuong

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