HCMCity Tourism: Eventful Festival Season

In spite of risks resulting from overloaded tours during the peak season, many are still very eager to have holidays when they don’t have to work for four or five days. Domestic coastal tours are very attractive to Vietnamese tourists, especially to Phu Quoc and Con Dao islands or Nha Trang and Phan Thiet beaches. Many companies had already filled their reservation books for tours to Phu Quoc Island in February. Favourite destinations consist of My Son holy land, Hue citadel, Hoi An ancient town, Phong Nha cave, Phan Thiet beach, Nha Trang coast and river life tours in the Mekong Delta.

 

Ms Doan Thi Thanh Tra, Deputy Director of Planning and Marketing Department of Saigontourist Company, said the number of outbound tours increased 40 per cent this year. Like inbound tours, most travel firms have filled outbound tour reservation books, because of the shortage of air tickets during holidays. According to tourism companies, individual visitors are keen on Chinese, Singaporean and Laotian destinations, while tour groups prefer Japan, Europe, South Korea, Hong Kong - Disneyland and the US.

 

Ho Chi Minh City-based travel firms said, the number of tourists registered for tours during the May Day and National Reunification holiday is nearly equal to last year’s figure, but most prefer long-day and luxury tours. Especially, the number of Saigontourist customers travelling to Europe soared 40 per cent against the figure of the same period in 2006. The 10-day tours are destined for Germany, France, the Netherlands and Belgium.

 

Although demand is high, travel firms still launch sales promotion programmes to attract clients. From early March, Vietravel has explored a series of programmes like combining tours to Nha Trang coast with sports activities, or exploring Japan. Notably, Vietravel organised a lucky draw from April 25 to May 1, winners receive tours to South Korea or China. Meanwhile, Saigontourist gives global tourism insurance policies from US-based AIG Group to outbound visitors from April 1. The insurance coverage includes even areas with terrorist attack threats and epidemic warnings. The indemnity is US$10,000.

 

The international arrivals to Ho Chi Minh City were 702,000 in the first quarter of 2007. Mr Nguyen Quoc Ky, General Director of Vietravel, said the number of Vietravel’s Asian customers increased significantly in the first quarter to some 10,000 people, up 38 per cent on year. According to Mr Ky, giant international tourism groups have not officially established a presence in Vietnam, only operating via regional representatives, thus competition is not as fierce as it will be. Small companies are still partners of Vietnamese travel firms because they cannot offer better price rates.

 

Following WTO admission, the competition between travel firms will be stiffer; hence, all companies must improve their professionalism in managing tours and human resources. If big companies do not reduce tour costs, profit will not be much affected, but small companies will suffer profit decreases because they have to cut tour charges to compete. Last but not least, travel firms worry about the lack of a macro strategy. The director of a well-known travel firm said, leaders of the Vietnamese tourism industry arrived in Malaysia more than one year a go to introduce the 2007 tourism programme in Vietnam but many companies did not know. In April, Ho Chi Minh City kicked off action programmes to attract visitors, but many companies are still uninformed.

 

Especially, the hotel room shortage remains a headache as Vietnamese firms cannot compete with foreign rivals in this angle. At present, Ho Chi Minh City has 872 accommodations with 22,000 rooms, and with this small number a deficiency is inevitable. Under this circumstance, instead of visiting Vietnam, international tourists will choose other destinations in regional nations.