VietNamNet Bridge – The summer travel season was unsatisfactory for travel firms with inconsiderable turnover growth. They also do not expect much from the September holiday which is coming in some days.

Despite a series of sale promotion campaigns, Vietravel could not obtain the 35 percent turnover growth rate as expected for the summer season. However, Nguyen Minh Man, a senior executive of Vietravel, said on Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon that 30 percent growth rate is not a bad business result, if compared with other firms which got the growth rate of 15 percent only over the same period of the last year.

Travel firms all have said that the growth rate of 15 percent proves to “make nothing,” if noting that travel firms had to spend a lot of money to stimulate the demand.

Vietrantour slashed tour fee by 30-40 percent with the support of Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet Air, which agreed to cut down the airfares. The travel firm also offered the 100,000-10 million dong fee reductions on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the firm establishment. However, the number of travelers did not increase significantly.

Travel firms now gear up to prepare for the upcoming three-day National Day holiday (September 2) by launching a series of short term tours.

The He Tre has announced the tour fee reductions of 20-28 percent for the seven package tours to Phu Quoc island in the south, Hue City in the central region, Ha Long Bay, Sa Pa and the Dong Van plateau in north. Meanwhile, Du Lich Viet has offered the sharp reduction of 35 percent for the tours under the program “Hello summer” which would last until the end of September holiday.

Especially, ACB Travel has launched a big sale promotion campaign, offering the discount of 40 percent for the short term tours to Nha Trang, Da Lat and Vung Tau.

Vietrantour has said that those, who book National Day tours at the firm, would be able to save 2-3 million dong if compared with the tours for ordinary days. Besides, the 1 million dong discount would be offered to the loyal clients who book domestic or international tours.

Ngoi Sao Moi is running the sale promotion program, under which travelers would enjoy the 1 million dong tour fee reduction for every travel booking the Bangkok-Pattaya tour, while Tan A Dong has promised the 15 percent tour fee reductions for all domestic tours.

However, despite the attractive offers, travelers still have not booked tours, leaving travel firms thirsty for clients.

Luong Duy Doanh, Deputy Director of Ngoi Sao Moi Travel Firm complained that the tourism market this year is much gloomier than the last year. Since people run out of money, their budget for traveling has been cut. Those, who can pay for tours, traveled in summer already, and they are likely to stay at home on the National Day holiday.

Doanh thinks that the number of travelers may drop by up to 30 percent this September holiday in comparison with the same period of the last year.

Nguyen Van My, Director of Lua Viet Travel Firm, has predicted that the number of travelers would drop by 20-30 percent.

Doanh said that the sharp fall of the travel demand is unavoidable in the context of the economic downturn.

Meanwhile, the input service fees all have been increasing so sharply. Doanh has affirmed that the excursion fees at some tourism sites have increased dramatically by 50 percent.

Thu Anh from Vietrantour said that in 2011, travelers had to pay 40,000 dong for the excursion fee at Phong Nha – Ke Bang cavern, while they now have to pay 80,000 dong.

Bao Han