Tourism firms pleading poor

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Usually, travel firms signed contracts with foreign customers around a year in advance, according to Vietnam Travel Association chairman Vu The Binh. However, tour prices have been escalating from early year, meanwhile travel firms could not unilaterally hike tour prices correspondingly.

“Many travel firms see their profits running out on the heels of such escalating input costs,” Binh said.

Travel, tourism companies and hotels continuously declared their new service price levels within the past month. For example, from mid March until present Fiditour hiked its tour prices by 10-15 per cent, Vietravel 10 per cent, other tourism firms such as Hanoi Redtour or Saigontourist en masses lifted up their tour costs by 10-15 per cent.

Fiditour’s deputy general director Dang Trung Nghia said high tour prices were inevitable on the back of escalating service costs.

Nghia added that to lure in customers in this sensitive moment, most of Fiditour’s tours included new offerings to customers.

Deputy director of Mekong Tourism Company Nguyen Thi Minh Thu said most customers willingly accepted 10-15 per cent tour price hike due to escalating input costs. She, however, claimed that the price of some tours hiked up to 50 per cent but businesses could not raise their tour price correspondingly as they fear of losing customers.

Alongside higher tour costs, local tourism sector benefits from a stable growth in the number of visitors.

Head of Saigontourist’s Marketing Department Doan Thi Thanh Tra said over 14,000 visitors registered for inbound and outbound tours with the firm for the upcoming April 30 and May 1 holidays, surging 30 per cent compared to a year ago.

Fiditour also expected a growth of around 30 per cent in visitor number on the occasion with around 22,000 visitors, according to Nghia.

Around 20,000 customers registered to take in Vietravel tours also on that occasion, up 20-25 per cent compared to the same period in 2010.

Unlike the previous year more visitors opted for outbound tours this year, according to head of Vietravel’s Communication Department Nguyen Minh Man. 

Man said most of its outbound tour customers head Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Myanmar and China. Particularly, tours to Cambodia by air or through Moc Bai border-gate rose sharply.

Hanoi Redtour deputy director Nguyen Cong Hoan ascribed stable outbound tour prices as a key reason behind the change to visitor taste this year. “Air tickets for outbound tours remain unchanged while those for local tours hiked 50 per cent. Hotel rental in foreign countries is also fairly stable,” Hoan said.