Travel agencies cancel tours due to high costs | Look At Vietnam

Travel agencies cancel tours due to high costs

May 3, 2012

LookAtVietnam – While the long holiday, which ended yesterday, May 1, was
expected to be a bonanza for local tour organizers, many of them in fact had to
cancel their offered tours at the last minute due to the exorbitant
accommodation and service costs in tourism spots around the country.

For illustration purposes only. (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

The Ho Chi Minh Tourism Association (HTA) and national carrier Vietnam Airlines
(VNA) last week unveiled a promotional tourism program targeting domestic tour
packages which was expected to bear sweet fruits from the first holiday it was
applied to — the four-day holiday to mark the national Reunification Day and
International Labor Day between April 28 and May 1.
However, though airfares were slashed by 40 percent for certain services as
part of the program, local travel agencies still had to cancel their discounted
travel packages as accommodation and services costs skyrocketed.
In the central city of Da Nang,
tour organizers had to seek intervention from the municipal Department of
Culture, Sport, and Tourism, as hotels offered exorbitant prices for rooms and
other services when it was still a week ahead of the international fireworks festival set to take place there.
A three-day-two-night tour package to Da Nang to
attend the fireworks festival costs VND6 million per tourist, 30 percent higher
than the rate last year, and 15 percent more than a tour to Thailand, travel agencies said.
Tour organizers thus demanded the cancellation of 1,400 rooms they had booked
due to the expensive fees.
“Customers for domestic tour packages dropped by 40 percent compared to the
normal rate,” said HTA deputy chairwoman Nguyen Thi Khanh.
Tran Van Dong, director of Phu Quoc-based Huong Bien travel agency, said room
prices of 3- or 4-star hotels and resorts account for as much as 40-50 percent
of the total cost of a tour package.
“Hence, if these expenses are increased, tour organizers have nothing left to
earn profits, and it’s understandable that they cancel the tours,” he
explained.
“VNA and travel agencies’ bid to boost domestic tourism has become fruitless
due to the unreasonably high prices,” said Tran The Dung, deputy director of
The He Tre Travel Co.
“This occurs whenever holidays arrive, but relevant authorities seem unable to
control it.”
Thousands of air tickets returned
Khanh, of HTA, said that on April 25 many travel agencies announced that they
had returned thousands of air tickets to VNA as they failed to sell their
packages.
The organizers accepted losing the deposits and paid fines to return on average
of 60 – 100 tickets each, while some even gave back nearly 1,000, said Khanh.
“We had to return 600 tickets for tours to the central part of Vietnam, and 300 for package to Hanoi,” said L., director of a HCMC-based
travel agency.
“The room price in Da Nang
on April 30 was VND1.4 million per night, while the normal rate is only
VND500,000.”
Dung, of The He Tre Co, also said he had to return 70 air tickets for a similar
reason.
“We also lost the deposits at some resorts in Nha Trang, Phu Quoc, and Phan Thiet,”
he added.
VietNamNet/Tuoi Tre

Grand Ceremony 35 years after reunificaton of Vietnam

HCMC Today, April 2010
Ho Chi Minh City - Thirty-five years after the reunification of Vietnam, a grand ceremony took place in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday, where the campaign for liberation of the former Saigon ended the 30-year Cold War military conflict in this southeast Asian country.

The event brought together about 50,000 people in performances and parades in the park near the Reunification Palace, where the official handover of power occurred on April 30, 1975 in Saigon, which was renamed Ho Chi Minh City.

In this city that is still referred to by many people as Saigon, the economy is booming as motorcycles roar down the streets next to reminders of a war that lasted for decades.

On this war-torn land in Ho Chi Minh City, construction of a high-tech park went into its second phase just two days before the 35-year anniversary of the reunification.

"A war-torn area then becomes a modern industrial world now," said Le Hoang Quan, chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, on the inauguration of the completion of the first phase of construction of the high-tech park on Wednesday.

The Saigon Hi-Tech Park, located in District 9 by the Hanoi Highway 12 km from the downtown, is one of two national technology parks in Vietnam. The other one, Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park, is on the outskirts of the capital Hanoi in the north.

"Actually, the whole area of the park covers 913 hectares. This morning we announced the completion of the first phase, 300 hectors of land, and we have 95 percent of phase one fully occupied so far," Le Thi Thanh My, vice-president of Saigon Hi-Tech Park's management board, said on Wednesday.

The park now has 17 operational projects, employing more than 10,000 workers.

"Right now in the park we have about 10 companies from various countries," she said, which include Intel, Japan's Nidec, Denmark's Sonion, and Allied Technologies of Singapore.

Vietnamese residing overseas have also returned to the country with various forms of investments, and five overseas Vietnamese are working in the park as experts and research fellows in the research lab, according to Le.

This park is among the ongoing projects aimed at transforming the economic structure of Ho Chi Minh City, which is currently a hub of labor-intensive industries.

Carl Robinson, a former Associated Press correspondent in Vietnam covering the war and now a business owner in the city, witnessed the change over the past 35 years.

"During the war, Saigon had about 3 million people and refugees, but now it's 9 million. Three times the population, but (the city is) not three times bigger. The city is getting crowded and the problem is the infrastructure is not catching up," he said.

Ho Chi Minh City is densely populated, covering 2,095 sq km over 24 districts in the heart of southern Vietnam.

Two new townships are being built to accommodate more residents. One is Cu Chi Northeast New Township, which is to cover 6,000 hectares, and the second one is the Thu Thiem New Township, which will cover 900 hectares.

Nguyen Anh Hgoc, vice-president of the Investment and Trade Promotion Center of Ho Chi Minh City, said the development of the Thu Thiem New Township was inspired by the Pudong New Area in Shanghai. "We will move people to the other side of the Saigon River to develop a new town there," he said.