Travel agencies have tailored various new domestic and overseas tours to meet the growing demands during the coming long Tet holidays.

Mrs. Doan Thi Thanh Tra, Head of the Marketing Office of Saigontourist, revealed that the company has launched 50 more tours before Tet holidays for local tourists and overseas Vietnamese who come home for the Lunar New Year festival.

Joining these tours, tourists can either go shopping to prepare for Tet and visit famous tourist sites as well. Particularly, visitors coming from southern provinces can enjoy the Tet atmosphere in the Northern region.

Saigontourist is expected to serve more than 15,000 tourists, up 15% compared to last year, and some of its domestic and foreign tours during Tet holidays have already been sold out. The recently launched tours before Tet holidays are expected to meet the high demands of customers.

Similarly, Viettravel, Fiditour and BenThanh Tourist have also introduced more than 200 domestic and outbound tours from late December last year to early February, 2011.

Overseas tourist favourite destinations are the US, Japan, Egypt, Australia, Thailand, China, Singapore, Japan and some other countries. Domestic tours mainly are to Nha Trang, Dalat, Hue, Hoi An, Phu Quoc, Ha Long bay, Yen Tu mountain, Sapa Town and Ninh Binh City.

The Hanoi Redtour is expected to serve more than 1,500 tourists during Tet holidays, an increase of 20% compared to the same period last year. Some of its tours have been sold out despite price increases of between 5% and 10% due to increases in exchange rates and transportation expenses. The number of people booking these tours keeps increasing every day and some people even booked tours three months ago.

 Mr. Nguyen Cong Hoan, Deputy-Director of Hanoi Redtour, said the company stopped taking bookings to ensure the service quality and warned tourists of bogus travel companies as their prices might be lower but services are not up to the standards.

Source: HNM

Translated by Duy Minh