Hot tourism during long holidays, customers 'light-headed' to buy tours

Illustration from AI

It is noted that during the weekends, many travel companies have assigned staff to be on duty and the operations department has worked overtime to receive new requests from customers.

Customers "light-headed" buy tours

It must be said that the "unexpectedly" long vacation when announced late not only made tourists but also the travel company somewhat confused.

"Wanted to go to Phu Yen, Nha Trang for treatment but was shocked to discover that I couldn't book a bus leaving Saigon on April 26," Ms. H.Van (HCMC) posted on social media and received many shares from friends.

Many families who had made plans in advance are having to change their schedules to accommodate the five-day holiday. More than a month ago, Ms. Phuong's group of friends (District 1, Ho Chi Minh City) planned to go out for the holiday but were still hesitant about "does my child have to go to school on April 29?" and were also worried that it would fall on the semester exam day.

However, with the new holiday schedule, families can rest assured that their trip to the West will start on the 27th, and even leave Ho Chi Minh City on the afternoon of the 26th.

"We went with a large group, so we didn't book a hotel but looked for homestays. Luckily, there were still rooms available," Ms. Phuong shared.

The reason for choosing the West is that families are also wary of rising airfares. Yesterday, many travel and tourism companies said their departments were busy advising customers who wanted to change their destination during the holiday right after the new decision was made.

Mr. Tran Quoc Bao, Deputy General Director of Saigontourist Travel, said that so far, tours departing on the occasion of April 30 and May 1 are almost fully booked. To serve the holiday, this year the company has built more than 200 domestic and international tour itineraries, expected to serve more than 110,000 visitors with more than 350 groups departing nationwide.

"Currently, businesses only sell short tours for tourists who want to experience a short vacation of 4-5 days with destinations such as Dubai, Bhutan, Bali, Thailand, Hong Kong, Laos... due to direct flights and convenient visa procedures.

Meanwhile, with domestic tours, tourists have the opportunity to experience many destinations suitable for both individual travelers and family groups, road routes such as Da Lat, Nha Trang, Buon Ma Thuot, Ca Mau, high-speed boat routes Vung Tau - Con Dao, Rach Gia - Phu Quoc," Mr. Bao informed.

At Vietravel, a representative of this unit said that this year many countries have begun to relax visa procedures for Vietnam, so although the information about the 5-day consecutive holiday is quite close, customers who want to go abroad on tours to Korea, Taiwan or Hong Kong still have time to register to go and enjoy the long holiday of the year.

At Vinagroup Travel, Mr. Tran Thanh Vu, CEO of the company, enthusiastically shared that the decision to allow the exchange of working days and extend the holiday has helped travel companies benefit significantly. During the weekend, the company completed additional procedures to go to Korea for two groups of guests.

Currently, in addition to tours to Thailand, Dubai, and South Korea, the market has also added tours to Laos that are selling quite well. The tour is bustling thanks to direct flights from Ho Chi Minh City to the capital of Vientiane. "Some families with young children in school are hesitant to book a tour, so when the official schedule is announced, they make a decision very quickly," Mr. Vu commented.

People playing at the kite field on Do Xuan Hop Street, Thu Duc City - Photo: DUYEN PHAN

But there are also updates, misses...

According to a survey by travel companies, during the peak tourist season of April 30 and May 1 as well as summer travel, Vietnamese tourists tend to choose mid-range foreign tours priced at 7-15 million VND, while for domestic tours, customers are willing to pay 3-5 million VND/person, while for tours using air routes, this price is very difficult to achieve.

Therefore, many units said they have considered canceling routes assessed as high risk such as Phu Quoc, Nha Trang...

Ms. Tran Thi Bao Thu, director of communications and marketing of Vietluxtour, said that prices of foreign tourism products during this year's holiday are relatively stable, but the domestic tourism market has seen a slight increase in some flight routes due to the increase in the ceiling price of air tickets.

Ms. Thu said that while during Tet and summer, tourists often choose longer tours, from 5 to 8 days, on other holidays of the year such as April 30 and September 2, tours lasting from 2 to 4 days are preferred by tourists.

However, this year's holiday is 5 days off, so in addition to the pre-prepared sales plan, in early April, after hearing about the possibility of swapping holidays, Vietluxtour proactively increased the preparation of outbound routes with suitable times and reasonable costs such as Thailand, Singapore - Malaysia, Taiwan... to anticipate the market.

Mr. Nguyen Minh Man, representative of TSTtourist Company, shared that up to now, there are still customers asking for air tours but from the Central region down, while there are currently not many seats left for road tours.

"Tourism businesses are only offering tours at a moderate pace because they are concerned that the number of domestic tourists traveling freely to nearby destinations will increase sharply. Campsites near the city may see a sudden increase, or family resorts will also be crowded," Mr. Man predicted.

Although it is considered an attractive business season, there are still some units that leave the game early and are unable to react when the decision on the new holiday is made. According to records, many travel agencies do not have high-priced overseas tours from 40 million VND or more such as tours to Japan or tours to Europe.

"There are many reasons to avoid risks, but the most important is not daring to book air tickets because the price is too high or if you book late, there will be no more slots. Meanwhile, the policy of booking tickets during the holidays requires them to deposit money immediately, otherwise if they cannot sell the tour, it is considered a loss. Currently, tours to Japan at some businesses only focus on before and after the holidays," analyzed the director of a tourism business.

Not only have they abandoned international tours, some travel agencies have also abandoned domestic tours to destinations where airfares are too high. The director of a travel agency in Hanoi confirmed that during the April 30 holiday this year, the agency did not sell tours to Phu Quoc, and some tours that could be taken by land were also requested by customers to reduce pressure from airfares.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tan, general director of Saco Company, said that a group of tourists had just proposed to go to Pleiku by road, accepting to take more than a day and currently more than 100 cars that the company had added were full.

Domestic tour: choose train for both cheap and more experience

Regarding domestic tours, under pressure from domestic airfares, Ms. Huynh Phan Phuong Hoang, deputy general director of Vietravel, said that the company is promoting train tours, which is also a new product for 2024 and has been selling quite well recently.

According to Ms. Hoang, for many tourists, the train journey is bringing a new experience, the tour also combines heritage destinations, learning about the culture and cuisine of the Central region, so it is very attractive to tourists.

Opportunities for inner city tourism

Faced with the "airfare storm", many people choose to stay home and rest or just travel nearby during the holidays.

Ms. Doan Thi Thanh Tra, director of communications and marketing of Saigontourist Travel, said that for the first time, Saigontourist Travel introduced a series of city tours in 18 provinces and cities where the company has branches, with many special tour packages at preferential prices.

Specifically, in Can Tho, Ben Tre, Buon Ma Thuot, Hue, Da Nang, Nha Trang, Quy Nhon, Hai Phong, Quang Ninh..., people can explore the cities where they live in a close, practical way. This tour can be added for guests from far away who want to learn more about a specific locality.

Ho Chi Minh City residents look for tourism information to prepare for the long holiday - Photo: QUANG DINH

Mr. Pham Quy Huy, director of Kiwi Travel, said that many people are researching destinations within the city or within a 200km radius of Ho Chi Minh City, taking advantage of available personal vehicles. Currently, the Alliance of Enterprises is opening a series of inner-city tours and has been well received by customers who go on the stimulus tour.

The tour includes a river bus experience, a bus ride around the city, a massage service, a dimsum lunch with Chinese cuisine... These activities are all wrapped up in 5 hours, helping visitors discover more unique features of Ho Chi Minh City.

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism said that during this year's holiday, the department encourages businesses to exploit inner-city tours. In addition, the city has also implemented 36 tourism stimulus programs and more than 200,000 vouchers for accommodation, dining, shopping, and health care services with discounts of 10-60%, introducing tourism products and services to the public.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/du-lich-nong-theo-ky-nghi-dai-khach-nhe-dau-mua-tour-20240414081629752.htm