Travel firms misestimate domestic demand

Some travel firms in HCM City, including the big ones, on December 29, 2011, still invited travelers to book tours for New Year holiday, and urged their officers to boost the sale of the tours for Tet holiday. 

In the south, travel firms invited travelers to the most attractive destinations such as Nha Trang, Phan Thiet, Mui Ne, Da Lat, and the long-distance tours to Da Nang – Quang Nam – Hue – Hanoi – Quang Ninh – Ninh Binh and Lao Cai. Meanwhile, in Hanoi, travelers were still waiting for travelers to book tours to the west of the southern region and Phu Quoc Island.

Is the demand for traveling not high on Tet? Ly Viet Cuong, Director of Nam Phuong travel firm, said that travel firms misestimated the demand and the tendency this year.

Before the State officially stated the duration for Tet holiday, and airlines informed about the new official airfares, travel firms only tried to invited travelers to take short distance tours with which travelers can go there by train or coaches.

After that, after realizing that the Tet holiday is long (9 days), and that the national air flag carrier Vietnam Airlines still reserved preferential air tickets for travel firms, a series of tours with traveling by air have been launched.

Travel firms all hoped that the number of travelers to book tours would be high because they would have 9 days long to enjoy. Therefore, they have not only launched long distance tours, but also increased the number of the tours to near destinations.As having offered a lot of tours, travel firms have to book hotel rooms in advance to be sure that they will be enough hotel rooms for travelers. 

Travel firms could not sell all the tours for New Year holiday, but they still hoped that they would have many travelers for Tet holiday. However, it seems that the number of travelers who have booked tours remains modest. 

It is difficult to attract travelers to book long distance tours, because travelers have booked outbound tours already after they heard about the airfare increases. Meanwhile, those, who choose short distance tours, tend to organize trips themselves instead of using the services of travel firms.Meanwhile, hotels and resorts have urged travel firms to provide final figures about the hotel rooms booked, so that they can offer the rooms left for separated guests.

Some travel firms have decided to close the tours and pay back unoccupied hotel rooms. Meanwhile, others have decided to lay a bet, still keeping hotel rooms booked. They hope that more travelers would book tours on the days just before the departure time.

Source - vietnamnet.vn