Travel agencies benefit from long Tet holiday

According to some travel firms in HCMC, while the demand for New Year tours is not very high, the number of customers buying Tet tours is quite impressive and is expected to increase by dozens of percents from the previous Tet holiday. This year, customers buy tours early and mainly buy tours by air.

Vietravel estimated the buying power would increase strongly during Tet, or the Lunar New Year, thanks to nine consecutive days off. Currently, 40% of seats of tours to Southeast Asian countries, South Korea, Japan, the U.S. and European countries have been booked while many tours by air to northern and central Vietnam have almost been sold out.

“We expect to have around 75,000 domestic and outbound tourists during the holiday, up 30% from the same period last year,” said Nguyen Minh Man, media manager of Vietravel.

At Saigontourist Travel Service Company, tours by air are preferred by customers. The firm served around 20,000 tourists last Tet holiday, and the figure is estimated to grow by 10% in the coming holiday.

“There are more days off and more journeys this year. Tours departing on good days, especially on the second day of the lunar calendar, have almost fully booked,” said Doan Thi Thanh Tra, marketing manager of Saigontourist.

The He Tre Travel and TST Tourist have also received many bookings for tours in the holiday. Other travel firms such as Du Lich Viet, Ben Thanh Tourist and Lien Bang Travelink are also busy selling Tet tours.

The prices of tour in the coming Tet holiday largely stay unchanged, but many travel firms have offered promotion programs to attract customers and encourage them to buy tours early.

For example, from December 20 to next March 19, customers buying tours at Vietravel offices and branches nationwide will have a chance to be given diamonds as well as several other valuable gifts. The total value of the firm’s promotions in this period amounts to VND10 billion.

Meanwhile, Du Lich Viet has offered a discount of up to VND3 million for customers buying tours before December 31. Customers can also enjoy more discounts if buying tours in group.