Several travel stimulus programs launched

Many provinces and cities nationwide have announced travel stimulus programs for this year with steep discounts to attract tourists, especially domestic ones, as the summer vacation is nearing.
HCMC will launch its travel stimulus program 2013 next Wednesday. Under this program, the city will conduct promotion activities both inside and outside the country as well as cooperate with the Tourism Association and Vietnam Airlines to lower the price of package tours to boost the domestic travel.
In addition, some travel enterprises, restaurants and shopping centers in HCMC will also offer discounts, enabling international tourists to buy products at lower prices when coming to the city.
Some localities in the Mekong Delta introduced similar programs last week. Around 30 transport and travel enterprises as well as restaurants and hotels will offer discounts of 5-50% for tourists when visiting the delta.
Quang Ninh, Thua Thien-Hue and Ba Ria-Vung Tau provinces have also announced their own programs, and more programs will be launched by other provinces soon as requested by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
The ministry encourages enterprises to offer discounts of 10-40% for tourists during low seasons and asks for cooperation from airlines to reduce airfares and organize travel programs.
To facilitate such travel stimulus programs, the ministry has proposed the Government to offer a 50% cut on value-added tax and exempt or reduce the corporate income tax by 50% for relevant enterprises so that they can join such programs.
However, new tax policies have yet to be passed, and although several travel stimulus programs of provinces have been announced, the discounts have been applied to a small number of tourism services and tours. Meanwhile, the price of many summer tours still increases like in previous years.