Many local tour operators have reported higher revenues from domestic travelers, which have helped them offset their falling earnings from international visitors as the number of international arrivals had declined in the ten months to March.

Two Vietnamese tourists ask a woman at Yangon International Aiport for information about tourist destinations in Myanmar. Local tour operators are promoting tours to domestic and overseas destinations to woo Vietnamese customers.

Despite dropping international visitors, revenues of many travel enterprises have remained positive as more domestic clients have traveled, heard the Vietnam International Travel Mart in Hanoi last week.

Companies leased 500 booths at the event to promote their tours and services to woo customers. Two-thirds of the exhibitors were local businesses.

Tran Van Long, general director of Viet Media Travel, said the number of domestic travelers had increased strongly in recent months.

“We have obtained growth of 300% in the year to date and already sold 90% of our package tours for the Reunification Day (April 30) and International Labor Day (May 1) holiday,” Long said.

Although the number of international travelers served by Viet Media Travel in the first quarter of this year tumbled 50% year-on-year, the company has posted good revenue growth in the last three months as more domestic tourists have bought its domestic and outbound tours. 

Pham Van Bay, head of the Inbound Department at Vietravel, said tensions caused by China’s illegal placement in May 2014 of a giant oil rig in Vietnamese waters and the strong fall of the Russian rouble against the U.S. dollar had caused Chinese and Russian visitor arrivals in Vietnam to slide.

However, the bookings by domestic tourists at Vietravel have soared owing to long holidays. The firm expected a 100% rise in tour bookings by Vietnamese travelers for the forthcoming holiday.

The enterprise has partnered with airlines and hotels to cut prices of its tours to Co To Island off Quang Ninh Province, Ly Son Island off Quang Ngai Province and Phu Quoc Island off Kien Giang Province in order to attract more domestic tourists.

Nguyen Cong Hoan, deputy general director of Hanoi Red Tours, said the company took part in the Vietnam International Travel Mart, also known as VITM Hanoi 2015, with a greater focus on domestic travelers as reality showed that the number of Vietnamese travelers has risen remarkably.

Nguyen Tien Dat, vice director of TransViet Travel, told the Daily that the company has felt the pinch of the decline in foreign visitors. Therefore, TransViet promoted more than 150 tours to domestic and foreign destinations at the tourism event.

Dat said the company hoped to sell tour packages to more customers at VITM Hanoi 2015 compared to 700 tour bookings at the same event last year.

Tour operators are pinning high hopes that many more Vietnamese people will purchase overseas tours as they can earn more from the recovery of the local economy and after months they were impacted by protests in Hong Kong and Thailand, the worker protests against China’s illegal placement of a giant oil rig in Vietnamese waters, Ebola outbreaks and plane crashes last year.