Hanoi (VNA) - The upcomingVietnamese Lunar New Year (Tet) will be a profitable time for domestic travelcompanies and tour operators.

Many of them have already sold out morethan half of their tours planned for Tet and foresee a growth of 12-30 percentin business compared to last Tet.

Besides short-haul tours to some Asiancountries such as Malaysia and China, outbound tours to long-haul destinations,such as the Republic of Korea, Japan, Australia, the US and Dubai, are nowfavoured by many Vietnamese holiday-goers.

Dau tu (Investment) newspaper quoted NguyenTien Dat, deputy director of TransViet, as saying that his company had sold outover 90 percent of tours for Tet holidays, with buyers of long-haul outboundtours making up 20-30 percent of the total.

Ta Thi Cam Vinh, who is in charge ofoutbound tours at Ben Thanh Tourist, said her company’s tours to the Republicof Korea, Dubai and Australia were fully booked.

The number of customers booking overseastours this Tet season has increased by 20-25 percent. The cost of these tourshas also gone up by 20 percent due to higher air fares, Vinh told the Thoi baoKinh te Saigon (Sài Gòn Economics Times) newspaper.

“With sufficient airfares, we could sellmore tours, thanks to local people’s demand for travelling, which is consideredthe highest in the past few years,” she said.

Fiditour has also expressed optimism aboutthe market, hoping the number of tour buyers will rise by 30-40 percent overlast Tet.

Tran Thi Bao Thu, director of marketing andcommunications at Fiditour, said tours to Australia, Europe and Dubai had beenfully booked since the end of December 2017. The company had to add more seatsin the tours to the Republic of Korea and Taiwan due to high demand.

Vietravel representatives told the Dau tu newspaperthat the company expected to serve 38,000 tourists travelling overseas duringthe upcoming holiday season, up 20-25 percent over last Tet.

The company had earlier introduced sometours taking tourists to India on chartered flights with a 30 percent discount.This was to meet the Vietnamese people’s demand for spiritual tourism in theupcoming holidays.

Besides outbound tours, Vietravel has alsolaunched Free&Easy tours, which comprise airfares and hotel rooms, forfamilies to eight domestic destinations, including Hue, Da Nang, Nha Trang and PhuQuoc.

It has also added spiritual visits to sometemples in the north, such as Bai Dinh-Trang An, Tay Thien and But Thap, to itstours for Tet.

Say “no” to low-quality tours

Despite the peak demand for travellingduring Tet, representatives of many tour providers said they would not competeby slashing prices while vowing to ensure quality of their tours.

Nguyen Hong Dai, director of APT Travel,which reported all its tours to over 65 domestic and overseas destinations asbooked, said his company had to sign contracts with partners three months aheadof Tet. The aim was to offer customers affordable tours as well as ensure tourquality during the peak period.

According to Vietravel representatives, theprices of tours for Tet are higher than in the normal period due to hugedemand. However, if customers applied the promotions of tour providers, they couldafford budget tours. - VNA