Vietnamnet.vn
Podcast
VietNamNet Bridge – Travel firms keep complaining that they do not receive the
necessary cooperation from air carriers, which explains why Vietnam still cannot
attract many travelers.
 |
|
|
“If the two sides do not help each other to reduce the tour fees and promote tourism, the cooperation between the two sides will not have much significance,” Dao said.
Travel firms all say that airlines still follow the principle “every man for himself”. Meanwhile, only when travel firms and airlines can cooperate well, will they be able to attract tourists
The travel firms say that the airfares applied to tourists are the same with the normal airfares. Kim Dung from Kenh Du Lich Viet travel firm said that since airlines sell tickets themselves and not through tourist agents, there are no air tickets with preferential rates for travel firms.
Due to the lack of close cooperation, travel firms are always in the passive mode when organizing tours for big groups of travelers. Travel firms only need to pay 30 percent for hotel rooms in advance, while the remainder will be paid when travelers check out.
Meanwhile, travel firms have to make payment for air tickets at once. Especially, they have to provide the full names of every traveler. The requirement clearly does not please travel firms, because travelers usually book tours just before the departure time.
“Airlines should apply a more flexible policy for travel firms. For example, they should allow travel firms to pay 30 percent of the airfares in advance, or allow to provide the names of travelers later,” Dung has suggested.
Big travel firms such as Vietravel, Fiditour, and Hanoi Red Tour also complain that it is very difficult to satisfy the requirements of travelers, because they can only book limited numbers of air tickets.
Analysts also say that the cooperation between air carriers and travel firms remains not tight, while blaming the monopoly in the aviation market on the lack of cooperation.
According to Vu The Binh, Chair of the Vietnam Travel Association, a good cooperation between travel firms and airlines will bring benefits to both. He said that travel firms should suggest detailed cooperation programs.
“I think travel firms should draw up detailed cooperation plans for every campaign or market, while they should not speak in generalities,” Binh said, reminding people that travel firms and airlines once cooperated very well in the “Impressive Vietnam” campaign.
Meanwhile, representatives from airlines argue that they lack information about tourism promotion campaigns, which should be provided by travel firms and the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism VNAT.
In order to settle the problem, VNAT and the national flag air carrier Vietnam Airlines are drawing up a cooperation program for 2011-2015. The program will include the projects on organizing famtrips, presstrips to popularize Vietnam’s tourism, and polish the images of Vietnam’s tourism and Vietnam Airlines.
In fact, the newly opened air routes have supported much to the tourism development. In the first six months of 2011, the number of foreign tourists coming to Vietnam by air increased by 23.8 percent, while the number of foreign tourists coming by sea decreased by 15.2 percent, and the number of travelers coming by land decreased by 4.5 percent.
A lot of travel firms have reduced the tour fees which helped attract more travelers after they signed cooperation agreements with airlines.
Saigontourist, for example, has cooperated with Vietnam Airlines and Japan Airlines and Japanese travelers to resume IKO Travel tour, after the Japanese market has recovered from the catastrophes. Doan Thanh Tra, Marketing Director of Saigontourist, said that the cooperation has helped reduce the tour fee by 12 million dong per traveler.
C. V
.svg){kind=icon}
