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VietNamNet Bridge – Travel firms in the north, for the first time, have reached
a cooperation agreement under which they would join hands to stimulate the
demand and develop services.
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16 northern travel firms join demand stimulus program
The demand stimulus program to be implemented in the north by travel firms with the cooperation with Vietjet Air proves to be similar with the program which has been running in the south since June. Under the program, Vietjet Air would offer 80 low cost air tickets a day (40 tickets for every flight). The preferential tickets would have the airfares lower by 49 percent than the quoted prices.
According to Vu The Binh, Chair of the Vietnam Travel Firms’ Association (Vista), 16 northern travel firms have been chosen by Vista for the program. These include the big and well known ones such as Hanoitourist, Fiditour, Saigontourist, Hanoi Redtours, Hanoi Toserco, Vinacomin, Vinamicetour, Vietrantour, Vietnamtourist-Hanoi.
When asked about the figure, Binh said that only 16 travel firms have been chosen for the immediate time in order to ensure the high quality of the program.
He went on to say that the two separate demand stimulus programs in the north and the south would be merged into a common program. The tourism product packages the southern firms have built up would be transferred to the northern firms. Similarly, northern firms would also transfer their products to the southern firms, which are also the members of Vista.
Nguyen Thanh Son, Commercial Director of Vietjet Air, has committed that the airline would create the most favorable conditions for travel firms to book tickets. Travel firms would have to inform the names of the passengers three days in before the departure days, and in some cases, two days in advance.
The open policy applied by Vietjet Air is believed to be more favorable than the one offered by the national flag air carrier Vietnam Airlines. Especially, the policy has been applauded by travel firms, which say travelers have the habit of booking tickets just before the departure time.
“Vietjet Air would try to settle all arising problems within its competence,” Son said.
Especially, Vietjet Air offers low cost tickets not only for the flights in non-rush hours, while having committed to offer seats on the flights with reasonable take-off and landing schedules.
In general, departure flights would take off in the morning, while return flights in the evening, which would allow travelers to enjoy their time.
Alliance to be set up to give more strength to northern travel firms
Nguyen Cong Hoan, Deputy General Director of Hanoi Redtours, head of the travel demand stimulus program implementation taskforce, said that while southern travel firms have been joining forces to develop tourism for the last 10 years, this is for the first time northern firms cooperate to do business.
“In the past, travel firms all made every effort to negotiate with partners to obtain the best pricing policies for their tours. However, they were not successful in many cases,” Hoan said.
“The voice from separated travel firms could not persuade big partners,” he explained.
However, analysts have noted that even though with the low airfares, domestic tours would still have the fees higher than outbound ones. With the airfare reduction of 49 percent, the tour fee could reduce by 20-30 percent. Therefore, the nearby markets such as Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia would still be more attractive than domestic ones.
Source: To Quoc
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