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Giang, Cao Bang and Dien Bien, or from
Ho Chi Minh City to Vung Tau, Con Dao,
Phu Quoc, Dalat are now top of the list
for low and middle income customers.
Longer inbound tours and tours to re-
gional countries such as Thai Lan, Hong
Kong, Malaysia, and China are also in
demand due to attractive promotion
packages. Indonesia is a hot destination
with direct flights and travel agents sell-
ing tours from around VND8-10 million.
Even the high-end market is shrink-
ing. “I do not understand why people
keep saying that the number of inter-
national tourists is rising, while in fact
it has gone down seriously as I have
seen. I guess they did not separate the
international arrivals and tourists when
counting the statistics,” says Pham Ha,
CEO of Luxury Travel.
Ha also believes the high-end pur-
chasing power of upper tier tourists has
reduced, albeit less seriously than in
other segments: “Before, such custom-
ers asked for top luxury services, but
now luxury alone is fine. They shorten
their trips and choose to go in a group,
instead of enjoying the tour on their
own as usual.”
Luxury Travel aims to ride the storm
by maintaining their prices while mak-
ing some adjustments, including adding
more value to customers; building up
short tours of 4 – 5 days; and penetrat-
ing potential niche markets.
Le Tan Tri reports that Lac Viet
Travel and Event does not believe in the
effectiveness of reducing tour prices:
“Instead of reducing the price, we set
up many itineraries for a destination
to widen the choices of customers. For
example, people visiting Thailand and
spending most of their time shopping
can choose a tour without visiting the
Safari Zoo or eating buffets in the coun-
try’s highest building, which can slash a
third off the price.”
Small travel agents are capitalising
on the situation and making short term
profits by providing cheap tours with
poor quality. Minh Phuong of Ho Chi
Minh City suffered the consequences
of this with her trip to Thailand. She
says: “I bought vouchers through a
group buying page forgetting about
the travel agent. However, they made
me pay an extra VND1 million per per-
son one day before departure because
the group was too small. I could not
cancel the tour because I had invited
my family to go with me. Many sight-
seeing tickets were not included in the
price and I had to pay a lot of extra
fees. There were many break times
during the trip during which we were
not instructed to go and visit any-
where. I was very disappointed.”
Nguyen Quang Ha, a doctor in
Hanoi also had a bad experience: “I
bought a tour for my family to Dan-
ang and was very excited to save more
than VND1 million per person,” he says.
“They advertised three-star hotels and
good meals, however these did not ma-
terialise. We stayed at a motel and ate
at dirty places with poor menus. The
motel was 5 kilometers from My Khe
beach which cost us more in transport
fees. I feel like I was cheated.”
“Thanks to such experiences, cus-
tomers are now much wiser,” says Tong
Thu Hien. “They take every little thing
into consideration, from the included
expenses and the quality of cars to the
room standards and meals.”
Travel agents are also now los-
ing out to more independently mind-
ed tourists like Le Phuong Lan, a 37
year old woman working in Hanoi; she
searches for her own cheap airline tick-
ets and room discounts and tailors her
own trips. “I do not want to depend
on travel agents,” she says, “because
if I meet a bad one I will suffer for the
whole trip.”
15
timeout
Tourists make bargain with a Dao woman in Sapa (left)
Attendents on budget carrier, VietJetAir (above)
get more, pay less