VietNamNet Bridge – The outbound tourism segment achieved sharp growth around the Tet holiday, outperforming the domestic segment, said big travel firms in HCM City.

Vietnamese tourists are seen in Japan.

According to Fiditourist, Lien Bang Travelink, Saigontourist and Ben Thanh Tourist, the outbound segment did good business at Tet, with one firm obtaining a growth of up to 50% compared to previous holidays. Most tourists prefer close destinations, especially Cambodia, but travel firms also sold long-distance tours such as those to the U.S., South Korea and Japan.

Ta Thi Cam Vinh, outbound manager of Ben Thanh Tourist, described outbound tours business as fine. The firm has had 1,500 customers buying outbound tours departing on December 25-January 12 of the lunar calendar. “At first, we did not expect demand to be this high over economic difficulties,” she said.

Saigontourist has had 8,800 customers traveling abroad on December 26-January 12 of the lunar calendar, with Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong as the top destinations. While the domestic segment rises by only 30%, the growth of the outbound segment is 50%.

Similarly, among 5,200 customers buying outbound tours at Fiditourist in the year’s longest break, up to 20% chose Thailand. Besides, the number of tourists buying tours to Indonesia, the Philippines, Dubai and Laos is up two to three times.

Tu Quy Thanh, director of Lien Bang Travelink, said that his firm had been serving 1,500 tourists in the Tet holiday, up 22%, and that the most popular outbound tours are those to Taiwan and Japan. Meanwhile, the domestic segment of his firm sees a growth of only over 10%.

Meanwhile, customers of Vietravel prefer tours with reasonable prices or with high prices. Vietravel’s offices nationwide have so far served around 19,000 outbound tourists, higher than the number of domestic tourists.

* In related news, the Government has approved a national action program of the tourism industry in 2013-2020 in which total revenue is projected at US$18-19 billion in 2020.

The content of the program has already been posted on the Government’s web portal at chinhphu.vn.

In the program, the local tourism industry should attract 7-7.5 million international visitors and 36-37 million domestic tourists with total income of US$10-11 billion by 2015. And the industry by 2020 would serve 47-48 million local tourists along with 10-10.5 million foreigners.

According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), the country in 2012 welcomed 6.84 million foreign visitors, up 9.5% against 2011, and 32.5 million domestic travelers, a surge of 8% year-on-year. The industry’s total revenue reached about VND160 trillion, or around US$7.6 billion last year, a year-on-year growth of 23%.

To achieve the high growth target in the next few years, the industry will focus on improving the quality of tourism products. As such, unique products will be developed by the industry in line with different markets, with at least five to six typical tourism products for key foreign markets and three to four products for local tourism annually.

In the years to come, sea and islands tourism, cultural tourism, community tourism and ecological tourism activities will be given priority for development based on the national program.

Notably, the Government as per the program will create favorable conditions for travel agencies to jointly develop products. Companies having the same key market or launching demand stimulation programs via business ties with air carriers, services providers and shop owners will be given State support as well.

Source: SGT