HCMC’s domestic tourism increasing

      Tourism firms in HCMC have registered a pickup in domestic summer tours compared to last summer thanks to discounts on local flights and relevant travel services.
Young Generation Travel Co. said that they expected domestic overland travel to fall 5% to 10% year-on-year but domestic travel by air to increase by five times from the previous summer.
Tran The Dung, company deputy director, attributed the growth in domestic air travel to Vietnam Airlines’ 60% discount on domestic flights between February 2 and May 1 and similar promotions from other airlines.
Cheaper air tickets are encouraging local people to fly.
“Vietnam Airlines is continuing the discount until September 30 while relevant travel services are also offering good prices. That’s why I hope the number of local tourists will increase this season,” Dung said.
Dung said local air tour prices had been reduced by 30% to 35% and that another reason that domestic tourism was on the rise was that people were scared to travel abroad because of influenza A(H1N1).
Ben Thanh Tourist has no available number of local tourists served in this season but thanks to attractive tour prices, the company has seen a rise in local guests, said general director Than Hai Thanh.
Vietravel has reported a 10% year-on-year improvement of domestic tours with around 13,000 tourists served. Tours to northern destinations such as Hanoi, Halong, Ninh Binh and Haiphong have been marked down by VND2 million per person.
Young Generation Travel Co. is selling a six-day tour to Hanoi for VND5.27 million, or US$292, the same price as a five-day tour to Thailand.
“We sold the tour to Hanoi for VND8.1 million last summer but we have a competitive price compared with tours to some neighboring countries,” Dung said.