Information from many localities and travel businesses shows a willingness to innovate and increase incentives to increase the attractiveness of domestic destinations for both domestic and international tourists.
Many new tours
During the peak summer season this year (June to August), the outbound tourism market has seen the emergence of many new tour products. Typically, tourism products to Inner Mongolia (China) and Mongolia exploit the demand for new destinations from tourists.
The attraction of the tour is to provide indigenous cultural experiences of nomadic life on the steppe. Along with that are new destinations in the Inner Mongolia itinerary such as Daoyu eco-tourism area, Thuy Dong Gou, Tay Quan - Yinchuan ethnic cultural park.
In addition, tourists are also interested in the “Central Asian Silk Road” tour, which passes through 5 countries: Kazakhstan - Kyrgyzstan - Tajikistan - Uzbekistan - Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan and Tajikistan are destinations that have not yet welcomed many Vietnamese tourists. The advantage is that there is now a direct flight from Cam Ranh to Almaty (Kazakhstan).
Tour "Central Asian Silk Road". (Illustration photo)
Some travel agencies take this opportunity to offer additional promotional services by offering free domestic flights from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to attract tourists. Another advantage is that Vietnamese tourists are exempt from visas to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. If you only want a short tour, you can absolutely visit these two countries.
In addition, the “land of kimchi” Korea is always a favorite destination of many Vietnamese tourists. In addition to traditional tours, recently travel companies have added tours to Jeollanamdo, a region in the southwest of Korea, following the Muan route and then connecting to Da Nang.
The "popular" point here is that the tour has many activities oriented towards nature and exploring local culture such as exploring Suncheon Bay National Park, visiting Nangdo Mural ancient village, Naganeupseong village, Boseong tea hill, especially the purple island Banwol-do,... besides, Jeollanamdo is also considered the "culinary capital" of Korea.
Or in the ASEAN region, the Tourism Promotion Board of Malaysia is also promoting new tourist destinations. In addition to Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh, Malaysia is promoting other tourist destinations such as Kuala Selangor (near Kuala Lumpur) and Gua Tempurung Cave (near Ipoh) with many new experiences. These places are not yet familiar to Vietnamese tourists but are popular with foreign and domestic tourists in Malaysia.
The cost of going abroad is "cheaper" than domestic travel
According to many experts' predictions, foreign tours will be the priority choice of Vietnamese tourists in the summer of 2023. The rate of booking foreign tours currently accounts for about 60%, while domestic tours are only about 40%.
Mr. Le Thanh Liem, representative of the human resources department of a company in Hanoi, said that next July, the company will organize a trip for all employees, a total of about 100 people, expected to last 4 days and 3 nights.
Accordingly, the company proposed two options: One is to go to Phu Quoc, total cost 8 - 10 million VND/person, employees do not need to pay extra money; the second option is to go to Phuket (Thailand) cost about 13 million VND/person, each employee pays an additional 3 million. According to the survey, more than 80% of the total of more than 100 people chose to go to Thailand, the reason is "Contributing a little more but going abroad is still better".
Phuket (Thailand) is the country chosen by most Vietnamese tourists during the summer epidemic season this year. (Illustration photo)
Starting from May, many travel agencies have predicted that the summer tour market will have an "explosion" of foreign tours, especially packages to Southeast Asian countries.
"This summer, international tourism will be more prominent than domestic tourism, which is understandable since last year we had a domestic storm. The tourism psychology of Vietnamese tourists this year has changed because the trend is different every year," said Ms. Nguyen Hien, a tour sales collaborator at Vietravel's Hanoi branch.
Directly competing products include the Bangkok - Pattaya 5-day 4-night package tour starting at only 5.99 million/person, Phuket (Thailand) 4 days starting at 9.9 million/person, Zhangjiajie - Phoenix Ancient Town (China), Bali (Indonesia), Singapore - Malaysia currently all priced at 13 million VND/person.
Representatives of the companies also pointed out some advantages of Thailand tourism such as affordable prices, simple procedures and convenient travel. China tours after the closure period also attracted customers this summer. The advantage is that most of these foreign tours do not require visas, the service is superior and there are many entertainment spots for children and families.
Besides long-distance international tours, Vietnamese customers are also very interested in tour products to distant markets such as Northern Europe (Finland - Sweden - Norway - Denmark), South Africa, Australia,...
According to businesses, this year's market demand will be highly differentiated, customers demand better quality so they are willing to spend from several million to several tens of million VND more to buy an overseas tour.
It can be seen that tour price and service cost are among the factors affecting tourists' choices.
