VietNamNet Bridge – Travel firm Pegas Touristik plans to resume chartered flights transporting tourists from Russia to HCMC on October 20 after about nine months of suspension due to low demand.

A Russian boy is seen playing on a beach in Phan Thiet City, Binh Thuan Province – Photo: Dao Loan

Hoang Thi Phong Thu, chair of International Travel Pegas Vietnam Co. Ltd. (Pegas Travel Vietnam), said the company would take Russian visitors to HCMC on at least one flight conducted every three days. Boeing 777 or Boeing 767 would be used for the route.

Most guests of those chartered flights will travel to resorts in Phan Thiet City of Binh Thuan Province and then return to HCMC for about two days before flying back to Russia. Some of them will tour Phu Quoc Island off mainland Kien Giang Province.

Thu said that the company has launched programs to woo tourists in the peak travel season at the end of the year. The company is expected to increase the number of chartered flights for Russians to about five flights a day.

Thu said attracting Russians remains a big challenge as the ruble has dropped sharply against the U.S. dollar. However, the company has managed to ensure that the number of Russian visitors will not decrease much compared to last year.

Pegas Touristik brought 196,000 Russians to Vietnam in 2014 before it set up its travel firm in this market. The number was much higher than 156,000 the company served in 2013 and accounted for more than half of the Russian visitors to Vietnam last year.