Traveling by train is becoming a popular choice for many tourists. Photo: Hoang Lan
An emotional journey
Recently, the famous travel website Lonely Planet voted Vietnam's Thong Nhat railway as one of the 8 railway routes with the most spectacular travel journeys. With a length of about 1,730km, the North-South railway meets all the criteria of a great train route when passing through historical cities and crossing the beautiful coastal route.
Because the journey of experience helps tourists have new emotions when admiring the beautiful scenery of the country, in recent years, traveling by train has been chosen by many tourists. As a tourist who just had an interesting journey of experiencing the Hanoi - Quang Binh railway, Ms. Bui Phuong Tra My (Nam Tu Liem district) shared: "My family had an interesting experience when relaxing to admire the beautiful scenery with a private route. The service on the train has been upgraded with polite, clean and very comfortable passenger compartments".
According to Vietnam Railways Corporation , in the first quarter of 2023, passenger transport indicators all grew strongly compared to the same period in 2022. Passenger output reached more than 800,000 people, an increase of about 200% compared to the same period in 2022. Passenger transport revenue reached about 300 billion VND, an increase of about 200%.
According to information from Hanoi Railway Transport Joint Stock Company (Haraco), in order to promote tourism activities on the train, in recent years, the company has had ways to attract customers back, focusing on building new and renovating train cars with a system of beds, mattresses, and modern, clean and comfortable toilets. In 2018-2019, the company built 145 new train cars to put into operation and serve customers.
Assessing the potential and appeal of rail tourism in recent times, Director of Tien Phong Travel Company Phung Xuan Khanh said that rail tourism is attracting tourists this summer because of new experiences and increasingly better services. From May 2023 to now, the unit has served more than 200 customers booking rail tours.
Vietnam's Reunification Railway was voted by the famous travel website Lonely Planet as one of the 8 railway routes with the most spectacular travel itineraries.
More customers, more quality
In order to increase the attractiveness of railway tourism, since 2020, Haraco Company has cooperated with the UNESCO Travel Club to stimulate domestic tourism by rail. Accordingly, the units have built package tours by train at reasonable prices to serve customers from Hanoi to tourist destinations such as Sa Pa (Lao Cai province), Dong Hoi (Quang Binh province), Hue (Thua Thien Hue province) and tourist destinations with railways passing through. To date, more than 15 travel agencies belonging to the UNESCO Travel Club have deployed the sale of railway tourism products in the form of charter (full trip rental).
Assessing the effectiveness of the linkage activities, Chairman of the UNESCO Travel Club Truong Quoc Hung said that since 2020, many travel agencies have effectively exploited railway tours. Package products from train transportation, resort, and dining are flexibly connected, so the quality of railway tours basically satisfies tourists. However, Mr. Truong Quoc Hung said that the biggest challenge of this type of service is the fierce competition of other means of transport, especially aviation, when airlines often reduce prices and increase the number of trips. In addition, the railway industry still lacks 5-star services to attract luxury customers.
To make railway tours more attractive to tourists, according to Phung Xuan Khanh, Director of Tien Phong Travel Company, there needs to be closer links between railway units, travel agencies, resort services, and restaurants to have better pricing policies for customers. Meanwhile, Director of AZA Travel Company, Nguyen Tien Dat, said that the railway industry should create more new experience services for tourists on the train.
Regarding this issue, Chairman of the Board of Members of Vietnam Railways Corporation Dang Sy Manh said that the Corporation is preparing to put into operation the railway cafe model to attract tourists. With this model, the Railway industry will choose suitable locations, ensuring traffic safety to open cafes, meeting the needs of passengers, helping them to watch the trains going back and forth or enjoy coffee with strange perspectives right on the journey of the trains.
Currently, to welcome the peak summer season, the Railway industry has soon developed a plan to increase capacity on the North-South route and trains to tourist areas. During this time, the Railway industry also applies many additional train routes with preferential price policies for tourists; put into use the high-class tourist train service SE19 to attract high-class tourists.
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