Overseas tours popular for lunar New Year holiday

Tran Quoc Bao, deputy director of Saigontourist Travel Service Company, said the company has been developing products and services for Tet holiday since September.

Advance holiday season bookings for domestic and overseas tours receive discount prices, he said.

Saigontourist will offer more than 300 tour packages, and it expects to serve more than 20,000 travellers through the holiday.

BenThanh Tourist said that tour prices would rise by 10-15% compared to normal days due to higher airfare prices and soaring fuel prices.

Early bookings for the Tet holiday have reached 60% of its target, the company said.

Nguyen Minh Man, director of communications and marketing department at TSTtourist, said outbound trips to Thailand, Singapore, the Republic of Korea, Japan, the US and Europe have seen a strong rebound in recent months.

Travel agencies are hopeful of strong growth during the year-end holiday season and a full recovery next year, he said.

Nguyen Nguyet Van Khanh, marketing director at Vietravel, said outbound tours had the highest revenue growth in recent months.

Short-haul tours to Northeast Asia will attract a large number of Vietnamese travellers during the holiday, she said.

Le Truong Hien Hoa, deputy director of the city’s Department of Tourism, said the department has focused on communication and marketing activities at home and abroad to lure tourists during the year-end and Tet holiday season.

The city will exploit historic and cultural heritage attractions citywide to make them unique tourism products, Hoa noted.