28 Oct 2016
HANOI Vietnam’s travel agencies offering budget tours valued at less than VND12 million (USD537) to South Korea will lose valuable advertising assistance and will not be able to participate in joint tourism promotions organised by the Korean Tourism Organisation.
Saigon Times media reported according to the KTO office in Vietnam, the move should discourage cheap and low-quality tours to South Korea.
A tour package bound for South Korea costs around VND20 million (USD896), but many travel firms cut prices to VND12 million (USD537) per visitor, the report claimed.
Cheap tours often include visits to shops where agents can earn commission. The practice disappoints travellers who claim the shop visits cuts into genuine sightseeing.
The number of Vietnamese travellers to South Korea has grown sharply, doubling from 106,000 in 2012 when KTO opened its office in Vietnam to an estimated 240,000 this year.
It is expected the number of tourists travelling between the two countries could reach 3 million in 2018, the report added.
For the first nine months of the year, 1,133,968 Korean travellers visited Vietnam increasing 39.9% over the same period last year, according to Vietnam National Administration of Tourism figure. The year should close with around 1.5 million visits.