Tours for the coming Tet Holiday have considerably changed after Taiwan tightened visa rules and Vietnamese tourists died in a recent bomb blast in Egypt.

Vietravel's customers

Taiwan has announced the suspension of online visa application incentives for Vietnamese citizens following the absconding of 152 Vietnamese in the country.    

Meanwhile, three Vietnamese people were killed and many others were wounded when a bomb blast hit their bus near the world famous Giza pyramids on December 28. Since then, local travel operators have temporarily halted Egypt.

Truong Thi Thu Giang, deputy marketing director of Vietravel, said many customers of the companies have turned to choose other tours such as Morocco, South Africa, Australia, South Korea and Europe instead of Egypt.

Lots of people have selected big travel firms so that they can get visas to Taiwan more quickly.

Ngoc Thao from HCM City’s Binh Thanh District said that she planned to travel to Taiwan in March, but she would consider this again due to the tighter visa policy along with financial demonstration requirements.

A representative from Saigontourist said Taiwan is a popular destination for Vietnamese people, so the country’s recent visa move had affected the company’s revenues.

Tran Thi Bao Thu, communications director of Fiditour, said that many customers of the firm have shifted from Taiwan to tours to Thailand and Singapore.

According to many local travel companies, demand before the approaching Tet Holiday has seemed to be slower than previous years. Some companies have reached only 80% of their targets.

This has been partially attributed to higher tour prices following airfare increases.

To ensure safety for tours, particularly those to foreign countries, travel firms have advised visitors to attend a meeting before the departure to be provided information about the trip.

Nguoi Lao Dong/Dtinews