VietNamNet Bridge - The lucrative tourism market is being exploited massively by domestic and foreign travellers through internet-based tools. 

Air New Zealand, for example, is providing direct flights from HCMC to Auckland on Dreamliner Boeing 787-9 aircraft with two flights a week.

The flights also provide special business class tickets with luxury services for VIP passengers on flights lasting more than 10 hours.

Air Asia some days ago unexpectedly announced it would provide Nha Trang– Kuala Lumpur flights daily, commencing from September. 

The lucrative tourism market is being exploited massively by domestic and foreign travellers through internet-based tools.

The managers of the low-cost carrier are optimistic about the potential of the air route.

The new air route will not only attract travellers to Nha Trang but will also create favorable conditions for Khanh Hoa province residents to access 120 destinations in Air Asia’s network throughout Asia, according to Spencer Lee from Air Asia Berhard.

Vietnamese now tend to prefer outbound tours instead of domestic ones as it has become less costly to travel abroad and foreign agencies are more professional in promoting tours. Travel firms including Vietravel, Saigontourist, Du Lich Viet and Tugo have reported sharp increases in bookings for outbound tours.

According to VITA, 6.5 million Vietnamese traveled abroad last year, an increase of 15 percent over 2015, and they spent $7-8 billion during the trips. Domestic travel has also been growing well. In the first six months of the year, the number of domestic travellers reached 40.7 million, up 25 percent compared with the same period last year (32.4 million).

The improved income of Vietnamese is the major reason behind increased travel demand. 

However, analysts believe that internet development is also an important factor They said travel firms now are taking full advantage of the ‘addiction’ of Vietnamese to the internet and smartphones to stimulate demand for travel.

Le Tu from Google Asia Pacific cited Google’s statistics that 90 percent of Vietnamese smartphone users are aged 30 and under and up to 40 percent use two smartphones.  Vietnamese check their mobile phones 150 times a day.

The frequency of Vietnamese searching for travel information is even more surprising. At least 48 percent of smartphone users search for information about hotels, and 42 percent search for information about flights.  18 percent search for both.

Vietnamese also spend more money. A report from Nielsen showed that tourism ranks fourth among the group of products on which Vietnamese spend money the most on e-commerce, after clothing, entertainment products and cosmetics.

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