Many Vietnamese tourists prefer travelling overseas, mainly to Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, or Tet, and the number of buyers of outbound tours has increased by 15-30% compared to last Tet, travel firms said.

Tourists buy tours at a travel company in HCMC 

Many travel firms in HCMC have sold out their long-haul tours and only tours to Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia are still available now.

Ben Thanh Tourist has sold out tours to Taiwan, South Korea, Dubai and Australia but is still selling tours to destinations in Southeast Asian countries.

Ta Thi Cam Vinh, who is in charge of outbound tours at Ben Thanh Tourist, said the number of customers booking overseas tours this upcoming Tet has increased by 20-25%. Prices of such tours have also gone up by 20% due to higher air fares.

Some other tour operators told the Daily that they have sold more than half of their tours planned for Tet, or even 70%. Saigontourist and Vietravel have plans to carry travelers to Japan and China on chartered flights during the Tet holiday.

Vietravel expects to serve 19,000 tourists traveling overseas on the upcoming holiday, up 25-30% over last Tet. These tours begin on February 10 with a 10% price hike against normal days. The company will take tourists to Fukushima in Japan and Ningbo in China on chartered flights with a 30% discount on air ticket prices.

Tours for groups of 25-30 tourists also posted high growth at Vietravel, with 14 groups to America, 31 groups to Australia and 41 groups to Europe, said Le Hong Viet Thao from the marketing and communications division of Vietravel.

Meanwhile, overseas tour prices at Saigontourist will increase by a mere 3-5%. Tours to Europe, Australia and America have attracted numerous customers, and the number of customers this Tet is expected to increase 15% versus last Tet.

Fiditour also expresses its optimism about the market, hoping 14,000 customers to book overseas tours, rising 30% over last Tet. Outbound tour prices will increase by 5-10% as well.

Tran Thi Bao Thu, director of marketing and communications at Fiditour, said tours to Australia, Europe and Dubai have been fully booked since the end of last month. The company has to add more seats in tours to South Korea and Taiwan due to high demand.

SGT