|
The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday, or Tet, turned out to be a
golden opportunity for local travel agencies and operators of entertainment and
tourism parks to make money in the new season.
Numerous large tour operators in HCMC such as Ben Thanh Tourist, Fiditourist,
Vietravel, Saigontourist and Lien Bang Travelink reported good performance
during the Tet holiday for both outbound and inbound tourism segments.
Saigontourist last Thursday had up to 40 tourist groups leaving for local tours
as the second peak day of the company in the Lunar New Year. Meanwhile, its
busiest day is the second day of the first lunar month, or last Tuesday, with 60
groups totaling 2,100 customers to tourist attractions like Nha Trang, Phan
Thiet, Dalat, Ninh Chu, Buon Ma Thuot and Tuy Hoa.
From January 23 to 30 only, Saigontourist has mobilized over 270 tourist buses
of 25 to 45 seats to serve tour buyers. The firm has received a total of up to
20,000 travelers including the number of customers for outbound tourism, up by
20% from the previous Tet holiday.
According to Vietravel, the number of tour buyers at the company has surged by
30% versus the Tet holiday last year, with about 30,000 tourists in total. The
most attractive tours for clients are tours to Hanoi, Ha Long, Sapa, Bai Dinh,
Trang An, Hue, Phong Nha and Quang Binh among others.
Meanwhile, outbound tours with familiar destinations like Cambodia, Thailand,
Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and South Korea have attracted many local
travelers. Fiditours said it had welcomed around 18,000 customers in this year’s
Tet holiday, a year-on-year increase of 24%, with 10,000 tourists for inbound
tours and 8,000 for outbound ones.
Big tourism centers at home like Binh Thuan, Nha Trang and Ha Long have also
experienced a busy business season during the holiday. The Department of
Culture, Sports and Tourism of the south-central coast province of Binh Thuan
recorded the number of travelers staying overnight at some 71,000 from January
21 to Sunday, up 21.2% year-on-year.
Similarly, the number of visitors to the coastal city of Nha Trang as of last
Friday was roughly 30,000 persons while that in the Ha Long tourism center
during the Tet holiday has been up to 15,000 a day.
|
