Nhu Thi Ngan, CEO of Hanoi Tourism, told VietNamNet that the April 30 holiday was followed by quiet days, but travel demand seems to be recovering. As students have finished their academic year, domestic tours are going to warm up.

As in previous years, people choose sea cities for destinations - Nha Trang, Da Nang, Phu Quoc, Quy Nhon and Quang Ninh - to avoid summer heat. Meanwhile, others choose outbound tours, mostly to Asian markets, such as China, Taiwan (China), Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan.

However, Ngan noted that the difference of this year’s tourism season is that travelers are not booking tours many days in advance. They book tours only several days before departure time. Meanwhile, the number of group travelers is decreasing.

As for outbound tours, travelers tend to choose nearby markets with tour fees below VND15 million per person. Farther markets such as Europe, Australia and the US are less wanted.

“The market is really lackluster, both in the north and the south. Such a dormant market has never been seen before,” said Ngan, who has been working in the tourism industry for nearly 20 years.

“In general, travelers choose tours with average or moderate fees, not luxury tours like in previous years. Very few tours to faraway markets have been booked,” she added.

Le Cong Nang, CEO of Wondertour Vietnam, thinks that many tourism companies may fail to fulfill their business plan this year because of fewer bookings. The purchasing power has decreased in tours with domestic air routes, while many long-distance tours to Europe, Australia and the US are departing with many unoccupied seats.

In general, after the April holiday, travelers begin searching for information about summer tours and book tours for June and July. 

But it is different this summer. Travelers need more time to make decisions and only book tours several days before departure time, while groups of travelers are small and book tours with reasonable costs.

Marketing Director of Best Price Bui Thanh Tu said that the number of the company’s clients is just 30-40 percent of previous years. The number of groups of travelers is also lower. In general, travelers booked tours one week in advance instead of 3-5 weeks for domestic tours and 2-3 months for outbound tours to South Korea and Japan.

Tran Thi Bao Thu of Vietluxtour predicted that domestic travel won’t see a high growth rate this year. Particularly, the market of independent travelers will be moderate because of higher airfares, and it competes with the market for outbound tours.

Experts have anticipated a tough year this year for travel firms. Air tickets became more expensive one month before the April holiday and they are likely to be even more expensive in summer. Travel firms dare not sign contracts to serve group travelers these days, and only those organizing outbound tours feel safe.

“We have signed some contracts to serve group travelers until the end of August, mostly loyal clients. There will be fewer tours this year because of the economy,” the director of a tourism company said.

Ngan said that expensive airfare will seriously affect tour fees, especially domestic tours.

A Hanoi-Da Nang return ticket is VND3.5 million on average, instead of VND2.5 million. The airfares to Phu Quoc have been raised from VND4 million to VND6-7 million and VND7.5 million on weekends, which pushes a tour fee up to VND10-11 million (3-4 days). Meanwhile, a tour fee to China is just VND13-14 million (5 days).

That is why travelers still keep hesitant and indecisive about whether to travel this summer. Meanwhile, Ngan said booking air tickets causes a headache for tourism companies. The larger the groups of tourists are, the more expensive the tickets will be. A group of 30 tourists would have good prices, but a group with 40-50 tourists would have to bear high prices.

Nang of Wondertour said many companies and institutions decided to cut down the budgets for staff’s travel. They choose the tours with travel by land, or the tours to nearby localities. Quoting tour fees without airfares is a solution chosen by many travel firms.

Ngoc Ha