Plenty of promotions to Siam

Local travel firms have re-opened tours to Thailand and are launching promotions to attract Vietnamese tourists now that the political situation is back to normal.
Saigontourist, Vietnam Airlines, Thai Airways and the Tourism Authority of Thailand are offering six day tours from HCMC to Bangkok and Pattaya with Vietnam Airlines for US$175 (excluding tax and airport service fees) departing on June 9, 13, 15, 17 and 19. Five day tours from Hanoi to Bangkok and Pattaya with Thai Airways for US$319 depart on June 12, 16, 20 and 26.
Vietravel is offering a VND1 million discount this month on tours to Thailand. There is a five day tour to Bangkok and Pattaya priced between VND2.7 and 2.9 million (excluding taxes) departing every Friday and a six day tour priced between VND3 and 4 million (excluding taxes) departing every day.
TST Tourist has linked with Thai Airways on the occasion of 50 years of operations of the airline. Tours to Bangkok and Pattaya departing on June 9, 10 and 17 are VND2.9 million. The same tour departing on June 13 is VND3.6 million.
Ben Thanh Tourist resumes tours to Thailand and Ta Thi Cam Vinh, manager of the company’s outbound section, told the Daily her company would discount US$50 per person for the five day tour of Bangkok and Pattaya from the regular price of US$310.
Fiditourist is offering a US$30 discount to the first one hundred customers who register for the company’s six day tour to Bangkok and Pattaya regularly priced at US$310 and departing every Thursday and Sunday. Youth Tourist JSC keeps the prices from US$318-328 but the company will take tourists to new destinations.
Although tours to Thailand have been resumed since early this month, a large number of tourists have booked tours and asked for tours to Thailand, according to the travel agencies. Nguyen Minh Man, manager of Media Department of Vietravel said, “Since opening tours to Thailand on June 2, Vietravel has received over three hundred tourists. Every day, we take two groups of visitors from 25 to 40 guests going to Thailand.”
TST Tourist, which has opened Thai tours from May 29, said it has received over five hundred guests registering. Saigontourist took over thirty guests to Thailand and another fifty departs on Tuesday. Hoang Thuy Linh from Saigontourist told the Daily that from the beginning of this year, the company has brought over three thousand tourists to Thailand, excepting the time when Vietnam National Administration of Tourism requested local travel companies to stop tours to Thailand since April 12.
Man said that compared to the same period last year, the number of tourists registered to Thailand were not down and the number increased day by day. Director Huynh My Yen of Natural Tourist JSC said “We have received registrations of five groups of tourists with 20-60 guests a group despite we will only re-open on June 11.”
Phan Thanh Tam in charge of selling tickets of outbound section of Youth Tourist JSC said, “Tours to Thailand draw a big crowd of tourists but the number of airline tickets is limited, so we have to open more tours on different other days to serve our customers.”
“It showed that Vietnamese tourists paid much attentions to Thailand and we forecast an sharp increase number of tourists would go to Thailand after waiting for the re-opening tours,” Man added.
According to Tourism Authority of Thailand, the government of this country is making many efforts to recover tourism after the political unrest that led to significant declines in visitor arrivals in April and May. During the period from May 18 to 24, daily arrivals to Thailand reduced by an average of 12,000-14,000 over normal.
Hence, the Thailand Tourism Festival held between June 9 and 13 at the Muang Thong Thani will highlight the country’s culture. Tourism Authority of Thailand also offer many promotions to attract tourists and organize seminars and road shows to promote Thailand tourism products.
However, only in May, the number of international passengers arriving at Phuket International Airport rose by 61.2% to 88,130.