Increasing the attractiveness of domestic tourism

The recent increase in domestic airfares has had a negative impact on the aviation, tourism, economic sectors and livelihoods of people in many localities. According to analysis, the global shortage of aircraft, along with strong fluctuations in exchange rates and fuel costs, has affected supply capacity, forcing airlines to adjust and increase airfares.

Recently, many solutions have been proposed to cool down airfares, this issue has also been discussed at the National Assembly forum, although the airfares have cooled down, they are still high. This has a significant impact on the interests of tourists, as well as the development of Vietnam's tourism industry.

Therefore, diversifying means of transportation, not completely depending on airplanes, will be an effective and sustainable solution to promote tourism development.

Promoting the development of railway tourism

Deputy Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Ha Van Sieu said that in the first 6 months of 2024, Vietnam tourism has fully recovered, many tourism statistics have reached and surpassed the period of 2019 (before the Covid-19 pandemic).

Deputy Director of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Ha Van Sieu talks about the potential for developing railway tourism.

According to Mr. Ha Van Sieu, tourism has not only recovered in quality and quantity, but the overall picture of the tourism industry has shown changes in market structure, demonstrating the adaptation of the tourism industry in the new era.

In terms of tourist transportation, in the context of airfares remaining high as they are now, the structure of tourists' spending on tourism has changed, opening up opportunities for other means of tourist transportation, one of which is still railways.

The Deputy Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism affirmed that railways have an important contribution to tourism. Not only transporting tourists from one place to another, but also on that journey, railways can create new experiences for tourists.

"Every year we have over 40 million passenger hours traveling on trains, which is a huge resource to exploit for tourism and services," said Mr. Ha Van Sieu.

According to Mr. Dang Sy Manh, Chairman of the Board of Members of Vietnam Railways Corporation, with the advantage of owning a railway system of more than 3,000km long passing through 34 provinces and cities, including many beautiful routes for tourists to admire the beauty of Vietnam through the train window, with many stations located at key national tourist destinations, Vietnam Railways Corporation wishes to turn the train journey of passengers into an experience, a part of the trip.

Mr. Dang Sy Manh said that recently, the Corporation has continuously improved and innovated to enhance service quality and launched many new products to serve passengers. A series of new products aimed at serving tourists such as high-quality trains SE19-20; SE20-21; Hue - Da Nang heritage connection train; Da Lat - Trai Mat night train; Hanoi - Hai Phong Food-tour train... have been welcomed by the people and tourists.

Along with that, Vietnam Railways Corporation has organized cultural, culinary and artistic activities at the stations to turn the stations into "destinations" for people and passengers. 2024 witnessed an explosive trend in choosing railways as a means of travel.

In order for railway transport to contribute more to the country's tourism activities, Vietnam Railways Corporation will strengthen cooperation with the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism. Mr. Dang Sy Manh hopes that this cooperation will bring many benefits to domestic and foreign tourists, contributing to the tourism industry in achieving the goals approved by the Prime Minister in the Tourism System Planning for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2045.

A passenger train of Vietnam Railways Corporation runs through Lang Co Bay in Thua Thien-Hue province - Photo: Vietnam+

According to Mr. Ha Van Sieu, when combining with tourism, the railway industry first needs to conduct more in-depth research on the needs and tastes of customers, especially their preferences when using time on the train. From there, develop more services to exploit the time passengers spend on the train, helping passengers enjoy, experience culture, cuisine and interact with destinations.

In addition, the railway industry also needs to apply technology to help customers easily access information on the train. In addition, there must be connectivity and payment services that are convenient for tourists.

In particular, the railway industry and the tourism industry must step up coordination to promote tourism products associated with the routes, as well as promote train carriages and services on the train so that passengers can know and experience...

Flexibility in building tours

Besides choosing railways to replace airplanes, choosing short tours and tours traveling by road is the way that tourism service providers adapt to meet the needs of tourists.

Recently, a series of short-distance tourism products, traveling by road, have been offered to tourists by tourism businesses.

Mr. Nguyen Cong Hoan - General Director of Flamingo Redtours said that to adapt to the increase in airfares, instead of long-distance routes, tourism businesses have switched to building regional tourism products, using cars, focusing on destinations such as: resort areas around the area, nearby sea routes such as: Ha Long, Cat Ba, Hai Tien, Cua Lo... to attract tourists.

Double-decker buses in Hanoi help tourists see the whole city from above - Photo: Internet

The high price of air tickets makes it difficult for tourism businesses to build tours, especially tours to stimulate domestic tourism by air. To adapt, many tourism businesses have been flexible in building tours, diversifying means of transportation, not relying entirely on airplanes.

However, to take advantage of the opportunity to develop road tourism in the context of high airfares, travel businesses need to improve and enhance the quality of road and rail transport services; increase marketing and promotion for domestic destinations; and promote cooperation to create attractive and convenient tour packages.

Promoting domestic tourism development through road and rail products could "turn danger into opportunity" in the context of domestic airfares remaining high.

>>> Lesson 3: Linking for development

Source: https://toquoc.vn/tang-suc-hut-cho-du-lich-noi-dia-bai-2-da-dang-hoa-phuong-tien-van-chuyen-khong-phu-thuoc-vao-may-bay-20240728111635394.htm