The 2023 Lunar New Year holiday is expected to be a boom period for the tourism market when the Covid-19 pandemic has been controlled in Vietnam and many other countries. Governments of many countries have also relaxed entry procedures to help stimulate tourism demand.
Since October 2022, travel agencies have developed and introduced many tourism products for the Lunar New Year with competitive prices and continuous departure frequencies, with the expectation that the number of tourists during the 2023 Lunar New Year will be 30-40% higher than last year. Although the Tet tourism market has begun to warm up day by day, the number of customers registering for Lunar New Year tours this year is somewhat more positive than that of the New Year. However, according to travel agencies, the purchasing power of tourists compared to the period before the COVID-19 pandemic (2019, 2020) has not yet reached the expected level.
Lunar New Year is approaching, but travel agencies still have to make efforts to increase Tet tour sales.
It's almost Tet but tourists are still indifferent
Ms. Doan Thi Thanh Tra - Marketing and Communications Director of Saigontourist Travel Services Company Limited said. Saigontourist Travel expects to serve more than 40,000 visitors nationwide during the Lunar New Year. Although the Tet tour sales were launched quite early, the number of visitors booking new tours has reached more than 60% of the plan.
Responding to Travellive, Mr. Hieu Tran, currently the reservation manager of Mercure Dalat Resort, said: "The pre-booking situation at hotels in tourist hotspots like Dalat is always stable. At Mercure Dalat Resort, the number of bookings and requests has reached over 70% of room capacity."
There are no more "full" rooms before Tet, is it true that Vietnamese people are no longer "interested" in Tet travel?
However, the situation of rooms being sold out before Tet like every year has not happened yet. Even on the occasion of New Year this year, according to Thanh Nien newspaper, many hotels and resorts in Da Nang and Quang Nam have low numbers of guests booking during New Year, some places reaching less than 50%.
What is the cause?
Ms. Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, commented: "Tour prices this year are quite high, increasing by 25-30%, mainly due to airfares. International flights have not fully recovered, the number of flights is low while many people travel independently, so some routes and some services are scarce, pushing prices up."
In addition, after a year of spectacular growth in domestic tourism, people no longer have the mentality of revenge travel after the pandemic. According to Ms. Anh Hoa, customers' travel behavior and habits have changed quite a lot. Before the pandemic, tourists often traveled during holidays and Tet. After the pandemic, tourists tend to travel evenly throughout the year and focus more on experiential factors.
High airfares have pushed up tour prices.
In addition, the Tet travel trend that is predicted to dominate in 2023 is short trips. People prioritize choosing nearby destinations. Some domestic destinations such as Nha Trang, Phu Quoc, Sapa, Da Lat, Ha Giang, etc. are always in a "popular" state at the end of the year. This is a suitable choice for tourists who want to travel for a short time during the holiday, and still have a part of their holiday schedule to celebrate Tet with their relatives at home.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Diep Anh (29 years old), currently the owner of a restaurant in Hanoi, shared: "In the past, my family always spent Tet traveling to the Central or Southern regions because of the long holidays. After the pandemic, I have taken advantage of traveling a lot, so I no longer put much emphasis on long-term travel during Tet. Instead, I want to spend time resting at home with my family."
Ms. Diep Anh chose Ninh Binh, a destination close to Hanoi, to travel during Tet.
Efforts to stimulate tourism
Currently, Tan Son Nhat terminal can only accommodate a maximum of about 3,600 passengers per hour (2,000 passengers in hall A, 1,600 passengers in hall E). If more flights are added, congestion will result. Therefore, the Civil Aviation Authority is limiting the maximum number of takeoffs and landings per hour at this airport to 42.
Airlines such as Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet Air, and Vietravel Airlines have increased the frequency of the main flight route from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi to 3 round trips/day (an increase of 200%) to provide passengers with more choices in terms of flight times and ticket prices. The airlines are still working with aviation authorities to increase the frequency of other flights.
The airline is continuing to work with aviation authorities to increase the frequency of other flights.
In addition, businesses are still trying to keep tour prices stable when the USD exchange rate is constantly increasing. Businesses operating in the outbound market face many challenges because they have to balance tour prices and adjust profits with the hope that the Lunar New Year 2023 period will bring the tourism industry more opportunities to recover and develop breakthroughs.
Positive signals from the foreign tourism market
The foreign tour market for the 2023 Lunar New Year is more vibrant and diverse as many countries around the world reopen tourism or relax anti-Covid-19 measures. With foreign tours, tourists prioritize choosing destinations near Vietnam because of open entry policies and affordable costs such as Thailand, Singapore, Singapore - Malaysia route...
Ms. Nguyen Nguyet Van Khanh, marketing director of Vietravel, said: "The 2023 Lunar New Year tour market is heating up every day, the demand for traveling abroad is very high. In particular, this spring, tourists can choose to travel on the beautiful Fukushima route of Japan with thousands of cherry trees blooming brilliantly with charter flights."
Vietnamese tourists prefer to experience foreign travel during Tet 2023
According to Ms. Khanh, some tour products to Northeast Asia such as Korea, Japan, Taiwan still maintain their appeal because the flight routes and flight times are not too long. Or short-term tours to warm climate areas with prices around 50 million VND are also popular. For example, tours to Dubai and Australia were also recorded by some units exploiting these markets as sold out 1-2 months ago.
