Rail - travel, the perfect handshake

Kinhtedothi - In 2024, the Railway Transport Joint Stock Company participated in transporting more than 7 million trips, an increase of nearly one million compared to 2023. This growth comes from many factors, including tourism products and charter ships.

In 2023, after investing 5 billion VND, the successful business of renovating the SE19/20 train fleet (Hanoi-Da Nang) has affirmed the correctness of the innovative thinking of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Railways Corporation . After receiving 7,000 billion VND from the Government to upgrade infrastructure, the railway is not simply competing with short-distance passenger cars. For short-distance routes, the owners have also invested in sleeper buses and installed additional toilets, so the railway cannot maintain its old business theory.

Necessity is the mother of invention

In the context of fierce competition from airplanes and cars, many "return train, return carriage" tours choose cars as a means of tourism, railways are facing many challenges. For a long time, railways have mainly operated during the 3 summer months, 1 month for Tet transportation, the remaining 8 months of the year the seat utilization coefficient only fluctuates between 50-60%. For railway transport, if the coefficient of inequality in the use of locomotives and carriages between the peak season and the low season is more than 200%, it means losses. But how to exploit the low season is something that has been troubling railway transport businesses for more than 2 decades. In universities and vocational colleges, the curriculum mainly teaches transport exploitation, to be good at railway transport business, you have to learn and explore on your own.

After losing about 2-2.5 million tourists/year, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Corporation Dang Sy Manh realized that instead of selling the journey from A to B, the railway needs to sell the experience from station to station, even from home to tourist destination. When economic income increases, passengers need to enjoy the "uniqueness and strangeness of the railway", while normal transportation needs can use private cars, high-quality cars, airplanes (especially low-cost airlines).

“The fact that the expressways and railways have lost passengers on the short routes Hanoi-Lao Cai, Hanoi-Hai Phong, Hanoi-Vinh, Saigon-Nha Trang further shows that the need to renew transport products is real. To be more precise, we are forced to change if we want to survive,” said Le Quang Dan, Head of Sales Department of Railway Transport Joint Stock Company.

With the successful handshake with Hai Phong tourism, the Railway Transport Joint Stock Company has coordinated with the Hai Phong Department of Tourism to continue implementing the Hai Phong food tour program, Hai Phong check-in, Hai Phong city tour, deploying the Hai Phong digital tourism map, posting the QRCODE of the digital map on the train carriages, implementing sales via the app to create convenience for passengers. Organize transportation during peak times, weekends, organize well peak transportation periods, summer tourism, holidays, Tet, summer.

The railway has applied preferential policies: Monthly tickets, buy 3 tickets get 1 free... Revenue in 2024 of this route has nearly doubled, compared to 3 years ago, about 123 billion VND. In 2025, the railway will continue to coordinate with the Hai Phong Tourism Association and travel companies to organize experiential tours on the Hanoi-Hai Phong route with high-quality rotating seat cars.

Product Refresh

“If the SE19/20, SE21/22 railway train models cooperate with travel agencies, then with high-end tourist train products such as "Central Heritage Connection Journey" between Hue - Da Nang, "Da Lat Night Journey", the Railway Transport Joint Stock Company has chosen local partners. The perfect combination will bring benefits to both sides, a win-win for tourism development,” affirmed Chairman of the Board of Directors Do Van Hoan.

After Quang Nam and Lam Dong, Binh Dinh recently requested the railway industry to maintain regular operation of the Quy Nhon - Saigon train pair (SE29, SE30) to serve passengers, especially tourists; coordinate with the Department of Tourism and relevant agencies to arrange additional passenger cars to ensure serving the travel needs of tourists, especially during the peak tourist season.

Charter ship, new tourism business model. Photo AT

Mr. Tran Van Thanh, Director of Binh Dinh Department of Tourism, said: “Binh Dinh province has implemented the “Train Road - Flower Road” movement in the province for 3 years 2023-2025 and clearly defined the scope of tree planting, selected favorable routes to launch the movement “Each route - One flower; Each station - One destination”, contributing to building the image of Binh Dinh tourist destination and the image of the North - South railway route passing through Binh Dinh province”. It is likely that the “Central Heritage Connection Journey” will be extended to Dieu Tri, Quy Nhon.

Good news in early 2025

“In 2024, the “Lam Dong - Railway Handshake” brought in revenue of 21.6 billion VND, with over 280 thousand passengers traveling by train (an increase of 208%) as proof of a new business strategy of the railway. Being able to renovate and upgrade train cars, partners willing to cooperate, banks open their doors to lend, the railway is facing a great opportunity to renew itself,” CEO of Railway Transport Joint Stock Company Dao Anh Tuan happily affirmed.

In terms of long-term strategy, the 10-year cooperation contract between the railway and PYS operates high-end trains with 8-day, 7-night cross-Vietnam journeys with 5-star standards and unique experiences, attracting domestic and foreign tourists. After the SJourney journey, with a ticket price of more than 8,600 USD per person, it shows the ability to develop high-end tourist railway products. Especially when Rail Europe, the leading train service provider in Europe, has just voted the North-South railway route with many beautiful scenes along Vietnam into the list of 9 railway routes in the world (ranked 3rd) that many partners have sought.

Source: https://kinhtedothi.vn/duong-sat-du-lich-cu-bat-tay-hoan-hao.html