High transport service fee sinks Vietnam’s tourism

Carrying passengers from here to there proves to be the most costly, time consuming and risky process when operating tours in Vietnam.
Thanh Nien has quoted its sources as saying that transport fee makes up 60 percent of the total expenses of a tour, the proportion bigger than any other kinds of expenses.
As for the tours with air flights and vehicles, the transport cost would account for 40-50 percent of the total tour expenses. Meanwhile, if travelers take boats, the proportion could be up to 60 percent. If only traveling by land, the transport cost would be just 20-25 percent.
The director of a travel firm in HCM City said he would be charged 15 million dong to charter a 45-seat coach to Nha Trang City for four days, not including VAT. The fee would be 8 million dong for a coach to Phan Thiet for two days, and 3 million dong for using coach in the inner city.
As such, travel firms have to pay 3-4 million dong for renting coaches. Meanwhile, also according to the director, Thai travel firms only have to pay for fuel, about 1500 baht, or 1 million for one 45-seat coach while they do not have to pay for the coach rent.
It is simply because the costs have been sponsored by shopping malls and shops, in return for more clients.
In Thailand, transport services are all very cheap. Taxi or tuk-tuk fees are just equal to 50 percent of that in Vietnam. In Cambodia, though the fuel price is higher than Vietnam’s, the coach rents are lower, thanks to the low import tariffs.
Here in the country, the rent for near itineraries is between 45 and 55 dollars for a 45-seat coach a day.
As for airfare, Pham Kim Nhung, Director of One Travel, said there always exists big differences in the airfares between the HCM City – Da Nang/ Hanoi flights and the flights from Vietnam to Bangkok.
Especially, analysts have estimated that the return ticket on HCM City – Hanoi flights would be equal to the fee of a 5-day-and-4-night tour to Thailand.
For example, a tour to Thailand which lasts five days and 4 nights, costs 7.1 million dong on average. One would have to pay 9.6 million dong for a tour to Cambodia (4 days and 3 nights), while a tour to Cambodia would cost 2.7 million dong only.
Meanwhile, if flying with Vietnam Airlines from HCM City to Da Nang, passengers would have to pay 3.4 million dong and from Da Nang to Hanoi 6 million dong
Pham Xuan Du, Director of the Xuan Nam Travel Company, noted that the airfares for domestic tours prove to be the highest in the region, while the coat chartering fees have also been very high.
“In the past, we mostly designed the tours by land. However, later, we have designed tours with air flights. However, if air tickets get more expensive, we will have to re-negotiate with the partners.
Ung Phuong Dung, Director of Indochina travel firm, also said that the overly high transport cost in Vietnam has badly affected the development of the tourism sector. More importantly, travel firms cannot anticipate the airfare tendency, while they have to sell tickets to clients one year in advance. Therefore, if the airfare unexpected increases, they would suffer heavily.
Therefore, in an effort to stimulate the demand in the current difficult period, airlines have to join forces with travel firms to slash tour fees to attract more customers.
Kinh te & Do Thi has reported that Vietjet Air has cooperated with the Vietnam Tourism Association on the cooperation to attract more travelers.