Domestic tours favoured during National Day holiday

Low-cost tours on offer

The number of tours booked during this year’s National Day holiday is much lower than that recorded in the same period of 2013, despite a plethora of bargain basement holiday specials on offer from tour operators.

While holidaymakers may be happy, it is not necessarily good news for the tourism industry.

Some of the larger tour operators report that tourists are choosing domestic tours to Con Dao, Phu Quoc and destinations in the central region, or short tours to Southeast Asian countries in lieu of outbound tours, which historically have been favoured during the National Day holiday.

Road tours to Da Lat city in the Central Highlands or to the beautiful beaches in Phan Thiet and Nha Trang are at the top of tourists’ list, apart from some venues in the north-western region, which are opting for more scenic tours through the infamous terraced rice fields.

The He Tre (Young Generation) tourism company reports tours to the northern region during the National Day holiday are massively discounted, by about VND500,000/tour/visitor lower than the regular summer prices.

Saigontourist, Vietnam’s leading tour operator, is offering huge 10% - 15% discounts, while another agent, Fiditour, also has monumentally cut-back the price for domestic tours by VND570,000-VND3 million/tour/visitor.

Keen interest in domestic tours

According to tour providers, the sale prices of domestic tours are at the lowest levels of the year. Hotels, restaurants and entertainment service providers are also proffering huge special discounts in a bid to invigorate last minute demand.

Tran Thi Bao Thu, Marketing and Communication Director of Fiditour, says the number of domestic tours offered during the2014 National Day holiday is about 20% higher than the same period last year.

The conflux of increased domestic tour packages on offer and reduction in the number of tours booked has created a last minute buyer’s market as the industry moves to offload the excess capacity and kindle demand with highly lucrative deals.

The strategy appears to be working, at least to some limited extent, as numerous tourists are scheduling last minute tours to the south-western region and north-western provinces.

Vietravel reports that in prior years there were large numbers of holidaymakers booking expensive outbound tours during the National Day holiday to the chagrin of domestic tours. However, this year’s trend is just the reverse.