Temple tour combined with spring travel attracts Vietnamese tourists at the beginning of the year

Vietnamese tourists often choose tours to famous temples and pagodas to pray for peace at the beginning of the year, but many people have started to switch to more exotic and beautiful locations to combine with spring travel.

Ms. Le Thi Quynh Giao, living in Ho Chi Minh City, said that going to pagodas in the spring is always in her family's plan at the beginning of the year. Some years when she has the conditions, she chooses to travel to the North for a vacation and visit Bai Dinh pagoda; other years she chooses to go to nearby destinations in Binh Duong and Dong Nai. This year, the family of four decided to buy a tour. Ha Long combine temple festival in Yen Tu.

"My family goes to the pagoda not only to pray for luck but also to experience the culture and combine it with traveling to new places," she said.

"Customers like to combine spiritual tourism with relaxation and spring travel to explore local culture," said Mr. Pham Anh Vu, Deputy General Director of Vietnam Tourism, about the travel trend of domestic tourists at the beginning of this year.

Mr. Vu said the company has sold 60% of its spiritual tours combined with spring travel, mostly to customers from the South. This year, the company has 20 spiritual tourism products for Tet, an increase of 10% compared to last year, with itineraries lasting 1-2 days, suitable for short-term travel needs before returning to work. Popular tours include Ba Den Mountain in Tay Ninh, tours Binh Duong Visit Thich Ca Zen Monastery, Buu Phong Pagoda or Ngoc Phat Pagoda, Ba Lon Pagoda in Long An. In addition, the northern tours, attending Huong Pagoda festival, visiting Yen Tu, Bai Dinh Pagoda are all fully booked.

For Northern tourists, Mr. Pham Van Tien, Director of An Tam Travel Company specializing in spiritual tours, said that tourists still prefer traditional destinations. However, many tourists who are familiar with "big temples" have started to switch to new destinations such as Ba Chua Then Temple and Dien Quang Pagoda to enjoy the beautiful scenery at the beginning of the year.

Instead of going to one spiritual tourist destination, the company launched one-day, multi-destination programs such as the tour of Ba Chua Then Temple - Xuong Giang Ancient Citadel - Vinh Nghiem Pagoda; Dien Quang Pagoda - Phat Tich Pagoda - Con Son Pagoda - Kiep Bac Temple. The tour prices range from 500,000 to 700,000 VND per person and are well received by many tourists.

Kim Anh, a tourist from Hanoi, also agreed, saying that she used to like sacred temples and pagodas to pray at the beginning of the year. However, when her children grew up, she preferred to choose new, beautiful pagodas to visit in the spring, to visit the scenery and for the whole family to have beautiful photos to bring back.

"I think the important thing is still to be sincere and work hard on yourself next year," she said.

Right after Tet, travel agencies welcomed a large number of spring tourists and early temple visitors. Vietravel forecasts that it will complete 88% of its plan to sell spiritual tours at the beginning of the new year. Director of Marketing and Communications Nguyen Nguyet Van Khanh said that domestic pilgrimage tours with a schedule of 1-4 days, priced from 500,000 VND to 4.5 million VND, are the most popular because they fit the majority's time and budget.

Early spring, Ba Den mountain Tay Ninh attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims every day. On the opening day of the spring festival on the 4th day of Tet, Ba Den Mountain welcomed the largest number of pilgrims, about 145,000, who made a pilgrimage to Ba Pagoda to worship Linh Son Thanh Mau and to admire the statue of Buddha Tay Bo Da Son on the top.

Currently, spiritual tour sales in January are still good, but customers do not book early, the trend of booking close to the date is still popular. An Tam Tourism representative said that many scams of booking tours on social networks have made tourists more cautious, especially in the first days of the year.

Meanwhile, spiritual tours abroad do not depend much on the early spring but on specific festivals, and can be taken all year round, such as Bhutan tours and India tours. In addition, these tours are often expensive and require time to prepare visas, so customers often book 2-3 months in advance instead of focusing on Tet like domestic tours.

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