Meanwhile, many people plan to travel nearby or by personal vehicle to save costs.
Tickets are already expensive and are now at the ceiling.
The high airfares since last year are now at risk of becoming more expensive on domestic flights due to the price ceiling increase from March 1. The highest price is up to 4 million VND for flights over 1,280 km, such as Hanoi - Phu Quoc, Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh City... an increase of 250,000 VND compared to the current price.
During the peak summer tourist season, this is a factor that can cause domestic airfares to spike due to a sudden increase in travel demand.
Not to mention, on the occasion of April 30 last year, airfares increased and then suddenly dropped, causing businesses and tourists to be passive and lose confidence... leading to some destinations being deserted.
This makes many travel businesses and customers wonder if the airline will repeat the "old disease" this summer.
Mr. Bui The Duy, representative of Lua Viet Tours, said that from the fluctuations in airfare prices "the closer to the peak season, the more tickets are sold" last year, travel agents and businesses no longer dare to hold many tickets but consider buying a series of airfares to popular destinations where customers do not have many options for transportation.
Air tours are often associated with long-distance tours, distances of 500km or more. In recent years, these tours have accounted for more than 80% of tourism products of businesses as the habit of traveling by air has gradually become an essential need of the people.
"This new price makes businesses less interested in booking tickets in advance because there won't be many cheap tickets. Therefore, domestic travel combos combining airfare and hotel will hardly have good prices like last year," said the sales director of a travel company.
Mr. Pham Anh Vu, communications director of Viet Travel Company, also said that since last year, domestic tour prices have had to compete very hard with tours to neighboring countries such as Thailand, Malaysia... due to high airfares.
"Tourist attractions like the northern provinces still have their own appeal, but if the pressure to increase prices continues, the trend of international travel will continue to increase," Mr. Vu commented.
Airline companies are struggling
Speaking to Tuoi Tre , a leader in charge of the commercial sector of a large-scale airline in Vietnam said that loosening the ceiling on domestic flight prices helps airlines adjust prices flexibly, in line with input costs to increase service quality.
When the ceiling price is loosened, the ticket price level will not increase immediately, the airline is still assessing customer demand. For example, during the April 30 holiday and summer, ticket prices will be adjusted flexibly according to supply and demand.
"As of now, it is early March, and we cannot confirm how much ticket prices will increase in the summer tourist season a few months later. Airlines will certainly open many ticket ranges, selling from low to high prices," he said.
Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet, Bamboo Airways, Vietravel Airlines... said they are working closely with travel companies and airline ticket agents.
In aviation, there are large-scale group tickets that travel companies and agents deposit up to several billion or tens of billions of VND in a certain period. These tickets have their own conditions and preferential prices, lower than tickets sold on websites for individual customers.
The airline has also clearly communicated the above policies to its agent system, ensuring transparent ticket prices and avoiding virtual price hikes.
On the airline side, Mr. Le Hong Ha, general director of Vietnam Airlines, said that through discussions with many airlines, the summer flight plan is being thoroughly implemented.
However, airlines still have their own concerns. Due to economic difficulties, airlines have cut a series of ineffective domestic routes and sharply reduced their fleets.
For example, from 30 planes, Bamboo Airways now has 9 planes, Pacific Airlines from 11 planes to 3 planes and Vietravel Airlines also only has 3 planes.
Meanwhile, Pratt Whitney is recalling about 3,000 A320neo aircraft engines for technical inspection. Vietnam Airlines has about 12 aircraft and Vietjet 10 aircraft that must have their engines removed for inspection.
The repairs are expected to take more than 200 days, which will affect operations. According to Vietnam Airlines, this will reduce the operating capacity of the airline's narrow-body fleet by up to 20%.
Still waiting for tourism - aviation connection
According to records, to prepare for this year's summer travel program, travel companies have planned to book flight tickets, rooms and some other basic services. Normally, during peak season, these services will be charged surcharges, with flight tickets having a ceiling price, so if there is no early preparation, it will be difficult to stabilize domestic summer tour prices.
Airfare usually accounts for about 65 - 70% of the tour price, so when airfare fluctuates, the previously built tour price will also be affected.
To avoid price increases due to the impact of adjusted ceiling ticket prices, travel and tourism companies also said they will have policies to encourage customers to book tickets early, helping them to easily plan their bookings in series-booking at better group prices.
According to Mr. Nguyen Huu Y Yen, Chairman of Saigontourist Travel Company, cooperation between airlines and travel companies is always an urgent requirement, but in reality this partnership has not taken place as expected.
Meanwhile, if airlines and travel companies share data, information or consult each other's market analysis, they can plan reasonable flight schedules.
This helps to optimize flight efficiency and increase ticket sales, while ensuring that customers can easily reach their desired destinations.
"Travel companies always have a relatively accurate quarterly plan for selling tours and services, while airlines can also calculate the expected number of flights. If they cooperate and share, both sides can optimize flight performance, thereby creating conditions to reduce airfares, especially during peak season," said Mr. Y Yen.
Many customers choose to travel by road.
Ms. Tran Thi Bao Thu, marketing and communications director of Vietluxtour, said that without waiting for the airfare adjustment in the coming time, since last year at this travel agency, the number of road tourists has been increasing.
In the first quarter of 2024, 60% of MICE guests (tourists and meetings) chose to travel by car and train, mostly from Ho Chi Minh City to Phan Thiet, Vung Tau, Nha Trang, Quy Nhon, Tuy Hoa... and from Hanoi to Ha Long, Sa Pa, Ninh Binh, Sam Son...
Most of the guests choose hotels and resorts with 3-4 star service standards, about 30% of corporate customers choose to stay at 5-star resorts combined with live or online conference programs on a national or global scale.
"The average budget for a domestic MICE tour is about 6 million VND/guest. If choosing to travel by plane, it will be very difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises. Instead, they spend more on accommodation and meals," Ms. Thu said.
Travel businesses believe that tourism needs a synchronous campaign to offer incentives not only on airfares but also on many other services such as restaurants, hotels, tourist attractions and other means of transportation... to contribute to positively impacting tour prices and customer demand, increasing the competitiveness of the domestic tour market at home.
Tourism businesses hope airlines will proactively cooperate
In preparation for the peak summer travel season of 2024, many travel companies have planned to "hold" flight tickets early to get good prices. However, the majority of tickets booked are mainly international tickets to Thailand, Singapore, China, Korea...
Explaining this, Mr. Bui Thanh Tu, communications director of Best Price, said that for domestic tours, tourists often proactively book tickets, along with the fact that domestic airfares are also high, so the price difference between domestic tours and some foreign tours is not too big. That makes domestic tours less attractive to tourists.
"Holding domestic tickets is quite risky, because travel companies will have to take tickets according to a series of pre-determined departure dates. Vietnamese customers rarely travel according to such fixed times, but are often flexible in choosing suitable flight times. Currently, we have booked tickets for the entire tour in 2024, but most of them are international tickets," Mr. Tu shared.
On March 1, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam informed about the request for domestic airlines to "schedule" operations during the peak summer season of 2024.
In particular, the department also requires airlines to proactively work and coordinate with travel companies to develop program content and exploitation plans to key tourism localities and countries to promote tourism.
A representative of a travel agency in Hanoi hopes that the coordination between airlines and travel agencies will not stop at policy. Currently, air ticket booking is still operated according to the mechanism distributed by the airline, while travel agencies are not proactive in choosing to book series of tickets as desired.
"Even though we are the ones paying, we still have to ask for tickets, which means if there are tickets or not, we can ask for tickets and seats, not just pay to buy them. I hope that when we can cooperate with airlines, we will create a good price boost.
Customers read information such as increased ticket prices or high airfares and are afraid of advertisements for "tours from only..." because for example, the advertisement says the tour is 4.5 million VND but when booked, it becomes 5 million VND.
I'm looking forward to a partnership that can offer stable, fixed prices to fit the customer's budget," he said.
Source
Comment (0)