VietNamNet Bridge – One month after HCMC officially offered river tours to some destinations in the city and the Mekong Delta, the number of tourists recorded is still modest as destinations are not attractive, travel firms said.

Tourists take a river tour in HCM City.

At the launch on Thursday, June 4, Saigontourist Holding Company, which was assigned to develop river tourism products, announced seven main tours and introduced three firms selling such tours, namely Saigontourist Travel Service Co., Fiditourist and Saigon Restaurant Boat.

Ever since, Saigontourist Travel Service Co. has sold river tours to only 196 international tourists, most of whom choose tours to Cu Chi and Long An. The number of domestic tourists buying river tours at Saigontourist is also modest.

Besides, Saigon Restaurant Boat has received over 200 tourists, most of them being domestic guests who want to try short-haul tours to Binh Quoi and along the Tau Hu canal. Meanwhile, Fiditourist has not sold any tours.

According to Nguyen Viet Hung, general director of Fiditourist, it is not easy to sell river tours as tourists have not been familiar with the new products. More importantly, landscapes and attractions of such tours have not changed much and are not attractive enough for customers.

“River tours cannot sell well without more attractions for tourists,” Hung said.

According to Doan Thi Thanh Tra, marketing manager of Saigontourist Travel Service Company, the firm has sold river tours for many years and it is hard to assess the efficiency in the current low season of the international tourism segment. However, many promotion activities of this type of tourism can produce long-term effects.

“It will be more effective with support from the city government. We also find river tours suitable for domestic tourists visiting HCMC and have launched promotions for such tours to them,” Tra said.

River tours introduced include the ones on the canals along the East-West Highway, Binh Quoi, Cu Chi tunnel, Monkey island-Sac forest military base, Vam Sat tourist site, Long Phuoc Garden, Phu My Hung urban area and a tour to Long An.

The HCMC government has recently assigned Saigontourist Holding Company to develop Bach Dang wharf into a tourism port to facilitate development of river tours as well as other entertainment services.

Source: SGT