VietNamNet Bridge – The upcoming holiday season has heated up the tourism market with an increase in the tours being booked despite the ongoing economic crisis.

Tourists visit Vinh Hy bay in the southern province of Ninh Thuan. The upcoming holiday has heated up the tourism market.

Several travel agencies say that their Christmas, New Year and Lunar New Year tours are already fully booked.

Nguyen Minh Man, marketing and communication deputy director of Vietravel, said the information that employees would get four days off for the New Year and nine days off for Tet (Lunar New Year) has roused the tourism market.

Vietravel has around 300 inbound and outbound tours to serve customers on these occasions.

Man said Vietravel expected to serve 75,000 customers from end of this month to March 2013, up 25 per cent year-on-year.

He said the number of bookings for the company's tours for the New Year has already reached 75 per cent of the target.

Many tours to the northern and the central regions are already fully booked, he added.

This year, the number of customers choosing to visit domestic destinations including Ha Noi, Sapa, Hoi An, Hue, Da Nang, as well as attractions in the northwest and northeastern part of the country from HCM City has increased significantly in comparison to the same period last year, Man said.

Many tours had to be closed soon because flight tickets were not available, he said.

Saigontourist, a leading travel firm, has launched 50 tours for New Year and 300 tours for the Lunar New Year holidays.

Doan Thi Thanh Tra, head of Saigontourist's marketing department, said one of the company's strengths was serving overseas Vietnamese returning to their motherland to celebrate Tet, or bringing their families and friends over to tour the country.

The company expects to have 6,000 customers for the New Year holiday, up 10 per cent year-on-year.

The company has also tours on land to Da Lat, Phan Thiet and Nha Trang.

It hopes to serve 20,000 tourists during the Tett holiday, 7,000 of whom are expected to use outbound tours, up 15 per cent over last year.

Tra said tours that depart on the second day of Lunar New Year are almost fully booked. Several tours to Europe, America and Australia have few spaces left, she said.

Saigontourist is going to open new tours to respond to customer demands, Tra said. She noted that the company's tours on this occasion have not increased in price, but include additional services.

The prices of several tours to Thailand and Singapore have gone up by 5-7 per cent due to increases in airfares, she added.

The Viet Media Travel company is offering a special promotion under which discounts of up to VND3 million are being offered for bookings made before end of this month for tours depart during the Tet holiday.

Group bookings will receive additional discounts, a company representative said.

He said Viet Media Travel expects to serve 6,000 customers this Tet, 60 per cent of whom will take outbound tours.

Lien Bang Travelink has also launched new outbound tours to Taiwan, America, Singapore and Malaysia as its existing tours are almost fully booked.

Besides, the company is offering discounts of VND200,000 to VND400,000 on domestic tours booked before the end of this month.

Source: VNS