Tết (Lunar New Year) tours have seen demand surge this year, according to HCM City-based travel agents. 

Fiditour Travel Company has sold 95 per cent of its tours, most of which depart in the first four days of the new year.

Outbound tours to South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore are almost sold out while tours to the US, Australia and Europe are fully booked.

Only tours by road to Thailand and Cambodia are still available.

This year bookings have soared by 25 per cent, Trần Thị Bảo Thu, the company’s marketing and communications manager, said.

People have opted for Asian destinations like Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan and China due to reasonable prices and plenty of options in terms of attractions, she said.

Vietravel offers more than 800 different tour options and expects to serve 30,000 customers.

By mid-January it had sold around 85 per cent of the tours.

Trần Thị Việt Hương, marketing director of Vietravel, said the tours cost only VNĐ3.9-10.9 million (US$170-480) as the company wants to keep prices down to attract customers.

The tours include by charter flights to Thailand and China, Hương said.

According to travel agents, people prefer outbound tours for five or six days during Tết, with Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore, South Korea and Malaysia being the most popular destinations.

The number of outbound tourists is up 9 per cent from last year, she said.

New, longer trips to countries such as Sri Lanka-Maldives, Mexico-Cuba-Panama, Bhutan, Jordan-Israel are also popular. 

Bến Thành Tourist said the number of people travelling to Japan and South Korea is up three- or four-fold and tours are fully booked.

Nguyễn Thị Tuyết Mai, marketing and communications manager at Bến Thành Tourist, said more and more people prefer tours to faraway destinations like the US, Bhutan, Japan and South Korea.

Last year tours to Southeast Asian countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore were popular during Tết, she said.   

Saigontourist launched a promotion programme, with awards for lucky tourists including VNĐ100 million (US$4,420) in cash and five-star cruise tours. 

More than 50,200 people have bought its inbound and outbound tours during a week before and after the New Year, 20 per cent more than last year.

Travel agents said overseas tours are popular because of reasonable prices and schedules but also crowds and high prices at domestic tourist destinations. 

VNS