Many people go out together to avoid the early morning sun.
"This holiday may be 5 days off, shall we go somewhere?", Ms. Thuy Linh's (Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City) message in the group of close friends immediately received many responses, but most of them were rejection messages. "My family just returned from Da Lat for 4 days. It's too hot, we have to find a cool place to go right away, I'm afraid it will be crowded during the holiday so I'll go first", Ms. Thu Quynh replied.
According to Ms. Quynh, at first she thought that the April 30 - May 1 holiday this year would be about 2 - 3 days off so she would just "stick" to the city. This year, the airfare was quite high so her family did not plan to go out like every year. Recently, Ho Chi Minh City has been extremely hot and dry, and her daughter had just finished her midterm exams so the whole family decided to go to Da Lat to find some cool air.
"If we wait until the holidays to go to Da Lat, it will definitely be very crowded, and there may even be no rooms available. Therefore, whether we have 5 days off or not, my family will still only go out to eat and have fun in Ho Chi Minh City or drive ourselves to some eco-tourism spots near the city, going back and forth in one day," Quynh explained her choice.
April 30 - May 1 holidays and the peak summer are the peak domestic tourism seasons. In the photo: Tourists visiting Hoi An
Mr. Manh Khoi (living in Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City) is preparing for a trip to Da Nang with his university friends next Friday (April 12). Mr. Khoi said that the class is expected to have a meeting in June in Da Nang on the occasion of the Fireworks Festival. However, since the beginning of March, the hot weather has lasted so long that he thinks that the Central region will be even hotter in the summer, and going during the peak of the festival will be very tiring. After thinking it over, everyone decided to go early in April.
In fact, since the April 30 - May 1 holiday season last year, many families have changed their holiday travel habits, partly due to the constant fluctuations in airfare prices. Instead of planning to go far, they now often decide to drive themselves to a few nearby destinations. Meanwhile, some people take advantage of the time to travel before the holiday, or choose to go to some countries in the region with relatively stable costs. For example, Ms. Phuong Vy's family (District 7, Ho Chi Minh City) is preparing for a trip to experience the Thai New Year holiday (Songkran festival, the traditional New Year of the Thai people) from April 10 to 15. Explaining why she did not wait for her own holiday but went to a foreign country to celebrate the holiday, she half-jokingly said: "Going to splash water to cool off, because the holiday at home is too hot!".
Ms. Phuong Vy explained that every year she usually "avoids" destinations during the festival season because they are very crowded, services are often overloaded, and prices are "exorbitant" and expensive. However, this year, Thailand has launched many attractive programs to attract visitors to Songkran. "They have released toll booths on the highways so that people can go on holiday; opened more immigration counters for tourists at the airport to complete entry procedures as quickly as possible. They also offer many free services to many groups of guests. Notably, airfares have been reduced across the board and hotel prices have not increased. I bought a round-trip ticket for less than 4 million VND/person, booked a hotel in the center of Bangkok where my family stayed at the end of last year, still 150 USD/night, unchanged. These are very strange things in a very attractive peak tourist season. If the April 30 - May 1 holiday lasts for 5 days, I would probably only stay in Ho Chi Minh City, or if the airfares were not too expensive, I would just go back to Quang Ngai to visit my parents," Ms. Phuong Vy shared.
Foreign tours are dominating
While many families' holiday plans are still uncertain, many travel companies are also waiting for official information about the holiday schedule to plan new tours.
Mr. Nguyen Minh Man, Director of Communications - Marketing of TST Tourist Company, assessed that the 5-day holiday from April 27 to May 1 is suitable to stimulate domestic tourism. Many families do not have plans to celebrate the holiday, but if the holiday is long, they will reconsider. Even without a tour, independent tourism activities can still stimulate demand very well for the local service ecosystem. However, because there is no official decision, businesses cannot be proactive in arranging services.
"If the decision on the number of days off is approved early, we will have more opportunities to serve customers, but it is also quite urgent because there are only 10-15 days left to finalize customers. Domestic tours, short tours by road, and Southeast Asia tours will be able to receive a certain number of customers from the decision to add more days off for the April 30 - May 1 holiday," said Mr. Man.
Mr. Nguyen Minh Man, Director of Communications - Marketing of the Company
Directly selling tours at the ongoing Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Festival, which is also a way to survey tourist demand, Mr. Nguyen Minh Man assessed that there is a big change in the demand for choosing and closing tours of customers. Instead of customers concentrating on weekends like the time of the 2023 tourism festival, this year customers booked tours right from the opening day, even when TST was constructing the booth, customers checked in and contacted to ask for tour information.
The tours that tourists are interested in at the TST booth focus on countries such as Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Japan, Australia, Europe, Mongolia, and India. The number of guests is usually from 2 to 8 people, showing that traveling in individual groups will be the main trend of the upcoming holiday and summer season. Besides foreign tours, tourists are also interested in domestic sea-related destinations such as Quy Nhon, Phu Yen, Da Nang, Nha Trang, Phu Quoc, Da Lat, etc.
Sea tours are chosen by tourists this summer. In the photo: Tour to visit islands in An Thoi archipelago (Phu Quoc)
"Airfares are high, some train tours have also started, there are signs of interest from customers because of the attractiveness of the landscape and modern improvements of the means of transport. However, with routes not too far away in the Central region, most tourists still choose air travel to save time and visit more," Mr. Man added.
Vietluxtour is also recording the "dominance" of foreign tours during the April 30 - May 1 holiday season. According to Ms. Tran Thi Bao Thu, Director of Communications and Marketing of Vietluxtour, outbound market tours have reached over 70% of the April 30 holiday tour business plan, focusing on routes to Europe, America, Australia, Northeast Asia... Southeast Asia tours can be sold close to the departure date because they do not have to go through visa procedures. If during Tet and summer, tourists often choose tours lasting from 5 to 8 days, then on other holidays of the year such as April 30 and September 2, tours lasting from 2 to 4 days are preferred by tourists. However, many groups of customers still arrange their days off, so 4 to 5 day tours such as the Northeast Asia route are still popular and booked very early (from the end of February).
Meanwhile, the domestic tour market has only reached about 60%, including package tours, combos, F&E (air tickets and hotel rooms), and optional tours. Quy Nhon, Phu Yen routes... have seen a trend of customers switching to road travel since the pandemic. These routes are convenient for road travel, the scenery is quite beautiful, so tourists who are not too pressed for time will choose to both enjoy the scenery and reduce airfare costs, saving money for better 4-5 star accommodation services. This year, in addition to package tours, tourists are also interested in F&E and booking partial services such as hotel rooms, cars, and air tickets.
Regarding tour prices, Ms. Bao Thu said that the prices of foreign tourism products during the holidays this year are relatively stable; in the domestic tourism market, some flight routes have increased slightly due to the increase in the ceiling price of air tickets. However, in general, the prices of tours during the April 30 - May 1 holidays this year have not changed much compared to the same period, partly because travel companies have booked a series of services in advance and launched many promotional programs. "Airfares usually account for about 50 - 60% of tour prices depending on the route (domestic), so the increase in the ceiling price along with the holiday season and the high demand for travel will cause the prices of some domestic flights to increase. To keep the price good, tourists can book tours early, if they can choose to book services outside of peak time frames, the price will be cheaper," Ms. Thu said.
Linking to stimulate domestic tourism
The April 30 - May 1 holidays and the peak summer are the peak domestic tourism seasons. Therefore, localities consider this a "golden" opportunity to exploit domestic tourists through attractive programs and products.
As the locality that "suffers the most" when airfares increase, tourism businesses in Phu Quoc have joined hands to cooperate, offer discounts on tour packages, and work with the locality to strictly control prices and hold events to stimulate tourists to visit during the April 30 holiday. For example, from April 1, Phu Quoc Express high-speed ferry company has implemented a discount program for customers traveling on the Rach Gia City and Ha Tien City - Phu Quoc City routes. Specifically, the unit has reduced the price to 235,000 - 500,000 VND/ticket (depending on the type of ticket); the Ha Tien City - Phu Quoc City route has a selling price of 148,000 - 360,000 VND/ticket, an average reduction of 40,000 - 45,000 VND/ticket compared to before.
Travel companies in Phu Quoc are actively promoting road and sea tours, bringing tourists from the Central Highlands, the Southeast, the Southwest and international tourists from Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand along the Ha Tien to Phu Quoc route. Many local homestay owners also commit to not charging extra fees and are willing to go to the market for tourists.
Many visitors choose foreign tours at Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Festival
Saigontourist Travel representative also affirmed that in the context of rising airfares, the connection between businesses in the tourism ecosystem is an important factor in the recovery of the domestic market. With the advantage of sustainable cooperation with domestic and foreign service providers, Saigontourist still ensures reasonable tour costs for domestic and international travel itineraries during this holiday. Specifically, Saigontourist cooperates with Vietnam Airlines to deploy early the 30.4 - 1.5 holiday tour package with continuous departure schedule. The airline arranges departure time in the morning, return in the afternoon and evening so that tourists can enjoy a full day of sightseeing, while applying a package price policy, reasonable for groups of 10 - 12 people and has the most competitive preferential price for groups.
According to Mr. Nguyen Minh Man, currently most localities are focusing on investing in tourism infrastructure. Quang Binh, Quang Tri, and the provinces in the North Central region from the tourism lowlands are starting to have many positive changes, many creative products. Provincial and municipal leaders have also proactively gone to source markets such as Ho Chi Minh City to introduce resources. Travel businesses are focusing on building many new domestic tour programs, adding more attractive destinations, higher quality, meeting the right trends of tourists. However, airfare is a huge obstacle.
"Many customers come to us, find the tour interesting but complain about the high price. After comparing and contrasting, they choose to go to Thailand and Singapore. In fact, for travel companies, sales are still as planned. Only being forced to redirect customers abroad means that domestic destinations, customers, and the entire Vietnamese tourism industry are disadvantaged. There needs to be a price management policy, promoting links between units to form a good product with attractive prices. The tourism industry needs a unit to take charge and organize a program to "inject strongly, stimulate strongly" the consumption and travel needs of people, especially during the holiday season, as Thailand is doing very effectively," Mr. Nguyen Minh Man suggested.
For the first time, Ho Chi Minh City has an outdoor cinema.
The Department of Culture and Sports of Ho Chi Minh City announced that it will organize an outdoor film screening program within the framework of the 1st Ho Chi Minh City International Film Festival - 2024. Specific film screening schedule: from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. from April 7 to 12 at Nguyen Hue walking street (Ben Nghe Ward, District 1) and from 7 to 10 p.m. at Saigon Riverside Park (Thu Thiem Ward, Thu Duc City). The organizers will screen classic and representative films from Vietnam and the world; combine exchanges and meetings with famous domestic and international filmmakers, artists, and actors. In addition, there will be diverse and attractive art activities and accompanying activities. This is the first time this activity has been held in Ho Chi Minh City to serve the people and tourists.
Exciting promotions at Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Festival
The 20th Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Festival (April 4-7) includes 150 booths, including 43 booths from provinces and cities, 35 tourism service businesses and other units. Nearly 400 tourism products and services from travel companies, accommodation establishments, and tourist attractions have registered to participate in the program with many promotional policies, preferential prices up to 50%, along with many gifts and accompanying services. The inner-city tourism program with new products along with nearly 40 programs to explore Ho Chi Minh City, waterway products, night products, discounts up to 60% with prices starting from only 299,000 VND... Nearly 20 tourism programs to experience the unique features of Ho Chi Minh City as well as the Mekong Delta and Southeast provinces with promotional ticket prices up to 35%. On the opening day, Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Festival had 1,740 visitors buying tours and products with total revenue of more than 26.3 billion VND, an increase of 49% compared to 2023.
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