Although the Lunar New Year 2010 (Tet holiday) is nearly month away, outbound tours are nearly full. Traveling aboard for luck becomes popular for travelers, especially the young. Some local travel agents reported that the number of tour registers during Tet holiday increased by 10-15% compared to the same period last year despite of the fact that Vietnam suffered impacts from the global economic downturn and price hikes.

At present, aiming to stimulate the local travel market, almost all travel agents offered promotional tour programs.

Vietravel launched numerous promotional programs, such as “travel to the world – winning diamond” from now to February 28th and “free tour to the Republic of Korea (RoK)” on the occasion of the 15th establishment anniversary.

Travelers can access Vietravel’s website to answers questions to get opportunities to win a free six-day tour to RoK and free tours to China or Nha Trang – Dalat.

Fiditour introduced 150 local and outbound tours, particularly a series of tours “Cheerful spring in the homeland” with destinations around Vietnam or tours to Hanoi to prepare the Thang Long – Hanoi 1,000th anniversary.

Saigontourist offered “Welcoming New Year 2010” tour at attractive costs but also pledged to ensure the quality while Hanoitourists has recently launched “Spring travel during Tet holiday 2010” to attract more travelers.

Ms. Huyen Trang from the New Wave Travel Companies said that almost all travel companies limited price increase maximally during Tet holiday by reducing unnecessary costs and prices such as early registering with low-cost air carriers, using three-star hotels but four to five-star hotels, and simplifying meals.

Travel agents reported that popular outbound tours are destinations with similar cultural backgrounds such as Singapore, Hong Kong, China, the Republic of Korea, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Moreover, tours visiting relatives in the U.S. and Australia are favored by Vietnamese tourists.

Source: CPV