Despite the lean year, travel firms still expand their business

Travel firms all complain that 2012 is a very difficult year for them. However, despite the decline, the firms still have been trying to scale up their business.
After the unsatisfactory summer tourism season, travel firms are now facing a quiet September holiday. VnMedia has quoted an executive of Hanoitourism as saying that the tourist sector is experiencing a period of serious crisis. The number of travelers has dropped by 30-50 percent so far in comparison with the same period of the last year, the sharpest decline in the last many years.
Dau tu has quoted its sources as saying that the revenue of the summer tourism season increased by 10 percent only, despite a series of sales promotion campaigns.
Luong Duy Ngan, Director of Newstar Tour said unlike the previous years, travel firms are not busy these days, because the tours designed for the National Day holiday have not been sold.
Ngan said the number of travelers booking tours for September holiday has dropped dramatically by 30 percent.
In 2011, Nha Trang, Da Lat and Phu Quoc islands were overloaded with too many travelers on September holiday. Meanwhile, the tourist sites are believed to be deserted this year.
Though the holiday would come just in some more days, travel firms are still ready to receive the travelers who book tours just before the departure time.
It seems that travel firms feel they would be better to set up more branches to expand their business scale at this moment, when they do not have too much work to do.
In late August 2012, Vietravel opened a transaction office in district 10 in HCM City, while it is now planning to set up one more in Thu Duc district. Earlier this month, Du Lich Viet also opened its new office in district 10, according to Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon.
One month ago, Saigontourist put the Saigontourist Travel Center in district 5 in HCM City and opened a branch in Dong Nai province.
As such, in the first six months of the year alone, the firm set up one more branch, two more branches and one travel centers in HCM City, Hanoi and Long Xuyen. It is now moving ahead with the plan to open some more offices in Hanoi and the southern region.
Every travel firm has its own reason to decide to set up more branches and offices. However, there is a common reason that travel firms want to approach clients more easily and better polish their images. With more branches opened, consumers would be more easily recognize the brands of the service providers.
Tran Van Long, Director of Du Lich Viet Company, said while the transactions would be still conducted at the headquarters in district 1 and via Internet, the company would continue enlarging its network.
It is expected that Du Lich Viet would have more offices in HCM City and in the central region. The main task of the branches is to take care for customers and make the tourism brands more familiar to travelers.
“When the brand recognition system is present in many places, customers would feel more secure to choose our services,” he said.
Nguyen Minh Man, a senior executive of Vietravel, said the firm has 10 offices in HCM City which are in charge of receiving individual travelers, while it plans to develop transaction offices in the suburb areas of the city.
According to the HCM City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the city saw the number of travel firms increasing rapidly in the first half of the year. There are now 784 operational travel firms in the city, an increase of 45 firms over the end of 2011. Meanwhile, the number of sales agents has increased from 14 to 18.