Long holiday offers big break for tour companies

A sharp increase in the number of people choosing different tour packages during the upcoming extended holiday next week has offered a golden opportunity to tourist companies to maximise turnover.

The five-day holiday for the Victory Day, April 30, and Labour Day, May 1, will start next Wednesday.

To celebrate the holiday, Fiditour, one of the country's largest tourist companies, has come up with special offers for its different tours. Therefore, it is offering discounts on tour prices ranging betweenVND500,000 and VND2 million.


In addition, the company has also introduced new tours to Ly Son Island in the Quang Ngai central province and Langkawi archipelago in Malaysia for this occasion.

According to director of the Fiditour's Marketing Department Tran Thi Bao Thu, until April 11, the number of clients purchasing tour packages of the company had increased 25 per cent in comparison with the same period last year.

The number of people purchasing tours abroad is slightly higher than the ones opting for domestic tours.

"While people choosing domestic tours tend to select tours to beaches and islands in the North and Central, the ones choosing tours abroad just pick destinations, such as Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore for their holiday," Thu remarked.

Due to the soaring number of clients, the company had to stop taking any further bookings for their tours last week.

Similarly, Vietravel also witnessed a positive growth as the number of tourists travelling during this occasion increased 100 per cent in comparison with the same period last year, and Saigontourist welcomed about 15,000 clients, increasing 15 per cent.

Famous attractions, such as Da Lat, Nha Trang, and Phan Thiet still remain the top choices among the tourists.

To satisfy their "Gods", other big tourist companies, including Saigontourist, Peace Tour, OSC Viet Nam Travel, and Ben Thanh Tourist, have added more vehicles for transportation as well as offered some additional services.

"All the inter-tours to the Central and the North, and the tours to Nha Trang, Phu Quoc and Malaysia are fully booked. We have to deny all new bookings during this holiday," stated Ben Thanh Tourist's Director of Communication Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai.

In Ha Noi, all tourist companies also have to try their best to meet the expectations of their clients.

According to Vietravel, they welcomed a large number of tourists, which has increased 300 per cent in comparison to the same time last year.

"Predicting the public's high demand to travel during this extended holiday period, Vietravel has made adequate preparations as we had negotiated with our partners, the service suppliers, to offer the best prices and quality services," emphasised Vietravel's deputy director Nguyen Le Huong.

Tour prices remain stable

Despite the soaring number of tourists, the tour prices are still stable.

Nguyen Cong Hoan, the deputy director of Hanoi Red Tours, reported that the tour prices this year are almost similar to the corresponding period last year, even slightly cheaper.

"Our company has presented a promotion programme for this occasion. Therefore, clients who register the tour with flights have received discounts ranging between VND500,000 and VND3 million, while the ones who joined the tours using vehicle transportation also received discounts between VND200,000 and VND300,000," he added.

Hoan also cited the reason for maintaining stable prices.

"Most of the tour companies have been seriously affected by the global economic crisis, causing under-expectation in the number of tourists. Hence, we have to jointly work towards boosting the market demand by keeping the prices stable," he stated.

Moving trend

As the holiday falls in the beginning of summer, most of the tourists have opted for beaches or mountain resorts to escape the summer heat.

It is not easy for tourists to directly book hotels and resorts in these locations as they are fully booked by tourist companies.

Thanh Trang, a woman living in HCM City's District 3, noted that her family wants to head to the beach during the holiday but she couldn't find any available accommodation.

"I have contacted all the hotels and resorts, from three-star to five-star, in Long Hai, Ho Tram, and Vung Tau [famous beach attractions], to check their availability, but they are all fully booked," she pointed out.

"It is the same situation in Nha Trang and Phu Quoc," she added.

For Ha Noi residents, tourist destination options seem to be more diversified. Many families are keen on taking two- to three-day tours to destinations surrounding the city, such as Ba Vi, Mai Chau, Moc Chau, Tam Dao, Dai Lai, and Thung Nai.

For the tours lasting three to five days, they select Dien Bien, Ha Long, and Da Nang