People flock to tourist sites on long holidays

The race is on to book air tickets and tours for the Hung King death anniversary and Liberation Day holidays, even though the holidays are still a month away.
Two attractive holidays in April: the Hung Kings death anniversary, April 23-25 and Liberation Day, April 30-May 1. If one hopes to travel for the first holiday, they still have opportunities to book air tickets, but the airlines are booked solid for the second one. Notices on the official websites of the two air carriers state that the airlines have no tickets for flights from Hanoi/HCM City to Da Nang or Nha Trang on April 29-30 and March 2-3.
Meanwhile, travel firms promise very attractive tours for this season. As for the Hung King death anniversary holiday, the focus is the Hung King Temple, where tourists can attend the opening day ceremonies of the Hung King Temple festival.
Nguyen Ngoc An, a senior executive of Fiditour, predicts that the number of tourists on the Hung King holiday will be high. His company plans to serve 1200 clients over the three days.
As for the Liberation Day, Vietravel will provide 100 tours, both domestic and outbound. Meanwhile, Hanoi Redtour revealed that it will offer some 40 tours.
According to Deputy Director of Hanoi Redtour, Nguyen Cong Hoan, the tour fees this year are higher than 2009, because of increases in airfares. Hoang explained that travel firms have successfully negotiated with hotels, restaurants, and transport companies to keep the same service fees as last year. Most travel firms try to offer attractive tour rates to lure more clients.
Nguyen Tuan Quyen, Director of Thanh Nien Xung Phong Tourism Company in HCM City, calculated that 400-500 clients have booked tours for the two upcoming holidays. Quyen noted that most of them want to go to the central region and Hanoi. Hanoi Redtour has also reported high number of tour bookings.
Most travel companies believe that there will be a higher number of tourists, but they don’t predict overcrowding at tourist sites.
During this tourist season not many people book outbound tours because 3-day holidays seem too short for a trip abroad. Many choose to take domestic trips to enjoy preferences offered under the tourism promotion campaign. It takes at least four day to travel abroad, while students must still attend school.
The number of people who want to travel to Thailand has dropped dramatically due to the present political uncertainties in the country.