Detailed statistics of tour price components show that all have increased: From airfares, road transport to service supply chains have increased sharply. This makes the smokeless industry cry and laugh.
The more customers, the more loss
Entering the peak summer tourism season of 2022 from April 30 until now, many localities have recorded impressive numbers of domestic and international tourists. Summer accounts for up to 70% of the revenue of the tourism industry in general and travel companies in particular. However, before they can celebrate the increase in visitors after 2 years of being quiet due to COVID-19, travel businesses are facing many difficulties to maintain operations.
Mr. Vu Van Tuyen, Director of Travelogy Vietnam Tourism Company, said that since the beginning of 2022, gasoline prices have been adjusted 17 times, but 13 times they have increased. The increase in gasoline prices immediately affects the price of tourist cars. Accordingly, tourist cars have increased by 15-25%. "Tourist cars increase every week, not after each increase in gasoline prices, making travel businesses not know how to cope. The reason is that after the COVID-19 pandemic, many car companies could not survive financially and had to dissolve. In addition, there is a shortage of drivers because drivers are no longer interested in the profession," said Mr. Tuyen.
Mr. Tuyen gave an example, a 45-seat car from Hanoi to Got Ferry to Cat Ba costs from 8-8.5 million VND/round trip. After COVID, the price increased from 9-9.5 million VND/round trip. At this time, it is up to 10.5-11 million VND/round trip. Thus, tourism transport alone increased from: 30-35%.
Foreign tourists visiting Vietnam.
According to Mr. Tuyen, not only the transportation cost has increased, the meals for tourists have also increased. Specifically, previously, the average price for tourists was from 150,000-170,000 VND/person/full meal of delicious dishes. But up to now, each meal has increased to a new price of 200,000-220,000 VND/meal.
In addition, the big burden for travel businesses is the increase in airfares. According to a survey, domestic flight ticket prices increased by 2.5-4 million VND/round trip, not including peak days. A series of other accommodation services such as laundry increased by 20-25%, toothpaste, shower gel... increased by 10%, causing hotel prices to increase.
“Previously, travel agencies signed annual hotel contracts, but now hotels only dare to sign monthly contracts because they don’t know if prices will increase further,” said Mr. Tuyen.
A travel company director sadly shared: “Previously, a 3-night, 4-day tour in Phu Quoc was only about 6-7 million VND/person, but now it has increased to 9-10 million VND/person. Or the Cat Ba tour price has increased from 2.5 million VND to 3.5 million VND, not to mention the increased entrance fee… The tour price has increased but the company does not make a profit because of many other arising costs.”
This person added that currently, to compete with domestic customers, travel agencies only make a profit of about 5-7% instead of 10% as before. “A group of 50 customers going to Cat Ba can only make a profit of a few million VND if everything goes smoothly. Even though it is a loss, we still do it because we have to retain customers,” this person said.
How do businesses manage?
According to the General Department of Tourism, in May and June 2022, the number of domestic visitors reached 12 million and 12.2 million, respectively. This is the highest number of domestic visitors in a month in Vietnam in recent years. Thanks to that, the number of domestic tourists in the first 6 months of 2022 reached 60.8 million (nearly 1.4 times higher than the same period in 2019), of which about 8.3 million were overnight visitors. Total revenue from tourists is estimated at 265,000 billion VND.
Rising gasoline prices put the tourism industry in a difficult position.
Mr. Vu Tuyen, Vice President of the Vietnam Community Tourism Association, said that after fully reopening tourism activities from March 15, tourism businesses have come up with their own strategies and product lines to attract customers. With 4.0 technology, businesses can reach customers more easily. In addition, businesses need the cooperation of management agencies, especially tourism management departments, to clean up dishonest factors and businesses and agents that operate illegally.
To attract tourists to Da Nang, Ms. Tran Nguyen, Head of Sales Department of Sun World Group, said that this unit is making efforts to invest in new products that will be brought to Da Nang in the near future, so that the city "is even more beautiful, worth visiting, even more worth visiting with many unique experiences".
