Nearly all tours to Japan of Dream Travel for 2024 New Year and Tet holidays have been booked. There are only some seats available for tours with departure on the fourth day of Tet.

Known as a travel firm providing high-quality tours specifically designed for customers. Dream Travel will serve six groups of tourists this Tet, with 25-30 travelers for each group. The tour fee is VND32-38 million per traveler.

“Most tourists like to go to Tokyo, Mount Fuji and ski in Fujiten and Osaka, and see early cherry blossoms on Lunar New Year. Some clients have contacted us and asked about tours to Japan to see cherry blossoms in April 2024. To date, we have sold 20 percent of tours planned,” said Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa, Deputy CEO of Dream Travel.

The reports from other travel firms also show that going abroad on 2024 New Year is the choice of many Vietnamese travelers. Northeast Asian markets, including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China, plus destinations such as Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia and Bali are the favorite destinations for Vietnamese. 

In addition, many travelers book tours to Europe, Australia and the US.

According to Tran Thi Bao Thu from Vietluxtour, the Tet tours to markets farther away have been fully booked. There will be six group tours to Japan with departure time on February 9-13, or from the last day of the Year of the Cat to the fourth day of the New Year of the Dragon have been closed. As for solo tourists, 55-60 percent of them choose to travel abroad.

Meanwhile, Bui Thanh Tu, marketing director of Best Price, reported that the total number of his clients increases on 2024 New Year holiday, while outbound tours increase by eight times compared with last year, equal to 75 percent of the amount of outbound tourists before the Covid-19 pandemic (2019). Most clients choose mid- and high-end tours to Japan, South Korea and Australia.

As for the Chinese market, Pham Minh Tu, General Director of Indochina Holidays Travel, said the new tours traveling by land, with reasonable costs (under VND10 million) attract customers, like the ones to Jiuzhaigou County, and to Kunming to see snowfall, while popular tours like the ones to Phoenix Ancient Town, Lijiang, Beijing and Shanghai still cannot attract many travelers because of economic difficulties.

“Last April, when China began reopening its tourism market, we witnessed a boom of tours to Phoenix Ancient Town by land. But the number of bookings is small this year. Only a few travelers have booked tours for Lunar New Year,” Tu said.

Regarding tour fees, travel firms said the fees have moved up slightly, by 5-15 percent. 

New travel trends

Talking about Tet tours, Thu commented that MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) tours and tours specifically designed to certain groups of travelers to Phu Yen, Da Nang and Nha Trang have been selling well. 

The special feature of domestic tours is that Vietnamese travelers only book tours just days before departure time. Therefore, her travel firm plans to sell tours throughout Tet days.

According to Tu, in the north, travelers tend to choose tours to ‘hunt’ for snow in Sa Pa, or they want to go to Ha Giang and Ninh Binh by land. Meanwhile, travelers from HCM City favor Da Lat, Phan Thiet and Vung Tau. But in general, the number of domestic travelers is not high.

Explaining this, Tu said the New Year holiday is short, just lasting three days. Meanwhile, people are tightening their purse strings and only spending money on essentials. Also, airfares are unexpectedly high.

According to Best Price, the airfare for flights from Hanoi to Phu Quoc on 2024 New Year (December 29 – January 1) is VND7 million on average, while the figure is VND3.87 million for HCM City – Phu Quoc flights.

The airfare for Hanoi-Da Lat has also increased by 1.4 times compared with two weeks before, while the figure is 1.9 times for HCM City – Da Lat compared with early this month

The high domestic airfares have prompted many travelers to change their mind and book outbound tours, which always have stable prices.

Tu noted that travelers now tend to book tours just days before the departure time. The trend began during the last April-May holiday and is becoming more common.

Ngoc Ha