Service providers sting themselves by overcharging travelers | Look At Vietnam

Service providers sting themselves by overcharging travelers

May 10, 2012

LookAtVietnam – Hotel, restaurants, resorts, carriers all try to overcharge
travelers on holidays or in high tourism season, which has made domestic
travelers turn their backs to domestic tours.

Travel firms have complained that the input service fees have been increasing
dramatically, especially on rush days, thus making domestic tours less
attractive to Vietnamese people. Travelers now tend to choose outbound tours,
which have lower tour fees, instead domestic expensive and monotonous tours.
Boring tours
Nguyen Van My, Director of Lua Viet travel firm, complained that it’s now very
difficult to sell domestic tours because of the high fees.
The fees of the tours to the central region on the May holiday, for example,
jumped to 5-6 million dong per traveler, much higher than the tour fee to
Cambodia at 3.6-3.7 million dong. Especially, the tour fees to Hanoi sometimes
are even higher than that to Singapore.
Outbound tours also attract Vietnamese travelers with their diversified and
interesting schedules. Meanwhile, domestic tours have not been diversified, thus
making travelers bored.
In fact, travel firms realized the problem many years ago. However, they still
hesitate to re-design tours, because this would be very costly. Meanwhile, their
ideas could be easily “stolen” by others, which would lead to the loss.
Vietnamese travelers do not have the habit of booking tours many months or one
year in advance. They only call to book tours in sudden inspiration. This
results in the increases of the hotel room rates due to the overloading, forcing
travelers to return home or move to other hotels.
My has emphasized that in the big difficulties, travel firms need to become more
professional with long term development strategies, instead of “living from hand
to mouth.” It’s now the right time for travel firms to join forces to develop,
instead of spontaneously dumping the market to scramble for clients.
Regional countries are facing the same difficulties like Vietnam in the context
of the global economic crisis. However, they still can stand firmly thanks to
the professional development strategy and the state’s support. They have not
only slashed tour fees to stimulate the demand, but have also diversified
services to attract more travelers.
Local authorities turn deaf ear to overcharging evil
Tran Van Long, Director of Du Lich Viet, complained that domestic tours were
sold very well in previous years, but the sale has been going very slowly so far
this year.
Long has affirmed that this should not be blamed on the economic crisis, because
this is the problem being faced by all countries in the world.
He has pointed out that service providers are killing themselves by overcharging
travelers on peak days. They raise the hotel room rates, meal service and
transport service fees on long holidays, when the travel demand increases. As a
result, Vietnamese travelers have turned their backs to domestic tours.
Nguyen Thi Khanh, Deputy Chair of the HCM City Tourism Association, has affirmed
that local service providers still can overcharge travelers because the local
authorities turn a deaf ear on the problem.
“The fact that local authorities sell excursion tickets to travelers and
visitors to Ha Long Bay has badly affected the image of a destination which has
been recognized as one of the natural wonders,” Khanh said.
The HCM City Tourism Association plans to work out with local authorities to
call on local service providers to reduce the service fees, so as to help travel
firms slash tour fees. After Vietnam Airlines slashes the airfare by 40 percent,
other service providers also need to slash their service fees, so that the
domestic tour fees can be reduced.
Source: NLD

Hanioan stay home curbing expenses for festivals

VietNamNet
Bridge – Though the four-day April 30 holiday is long, many Hanoians would
rather stay at home rather than taking tours, because they have decided to curb
expenses in the price storm.

It’s not the right time to travel

With the
total income of 20 million dong a month, previously, Mai and her husband always
had enough money to cover all expenses of the three-member family and reward
themselves with attractive tours on holidays.

However,
over the last year, though their income remains unchanged, the prices of goods
and services has increased by two fold. The “price storm” has frightened Mai.

“The prices
increased many times previously, but they did not affect my family, because
with the income of 20 million dong, we were considered high income earners.
However, the latest sharp price increase has forced me to change the way I
spend,” Mai complained.

In fact,
Mai and her husband still have money to pay for a tour on April 30 holiday.
However, Mai has decided to stay at home. “The petroleum price has increased
sharply by 6000 dong per liter just within one month. Meanwhile, petroleum
distributors still incur losses. I am afraid that the petroleum prices will
increase further, thus leading to price increases of a lot of other products,”
she said. “Therefore, it would be better to cut down expenses beginning right
now”.

“By staying
at home, we would save nearly 10 million dong,” Mai estimated.

Tour fees on the rise, tourism sites
not attractive

Hung, who
lives on Hang Dao street,
said that he always traveled on long holidays, but he does not intend to go
anywhere this April 30 holiday.

Hung has to
change his habits because the tour fees have increased too sharply. He has been
told by travel firms that the tour fees have increased by 15-30 percent,
because the transportation fee, hotel room rates and other service fees all
have increased.

In fact,
there is another reason that has led to the decision to stay at home. Hung said
that tourism sites are always very crowded on holidays. Therefore, Hung does
not feel good when traveling to the sites: he always has to watch out for his wallet
because of theft.

“Travelers
spend money to relax. However, in fact, they cannot relax on holidays, because
they have to elbow through crowds and struggle with pickpockets and robbery,”
Hung said. “Besides, many tourism sites have become uninteresting, and I don’t
know what to do except sightseeing”.

A difficult period for travel firms

Even
Vietravel, a big travel firm, also complained that it is really difficult to do
business now.

Nguyen Minh
Man, a senior executive of Vietravel, said the number of travelers on Hung King
Death Anniversary and April 30 holidays is estimated to increase by 20-25
percent only, much lower than the expected level of 35 percent.

Nguyen Hai
Quan from AMI Travel Firm, also complained that there are not many travelers as
expected. Quan said his firm has to raise prices by five percent, but the price
increase is not big enough to make profit because the coach leasing fee has
increased by 25 percent, while hotel room rate has increased by 20 percent and
meal services have increased by 5-10 percent.

“Especially,
many hotels and restaurants have not fixed prices because they are still
listening to the news for updates,” Quan said.

Meanwhile,
Man from Vietravel said Vietravel has raised the tour fees by 10 percent after efforts
to negotiate with partners to stabilize service fees. Though the 10 percent
increase is modest, Vietravel cannot set higher fees because it wants to retain
travelers.

N. Yen

MTV EXIT Live concert series in four cities – Hanoi, HCM City, Ha Long and Can Tho

MTV Exit has announced the details of MTV EXIT Live concert series in four cities – Hanoi, HCM City, Ha Long and Can Tho to be held in March and April 2010.

MTV Exit concert in Manila, the Philippines in January 2009 (photo: MTV)

The concerts, sponsored by the MTV EXIT (End Exploitation and Trafficking) campaign, aim to raise awareness and prevention of human trafficking and exploitation.

The tour will start in Hanoi, at 7pm, March 27 at My Dinh national stadium, with the participation of Korea’s famous band, Super Junior, and Australian star, Kate Miller-Heidke. Vietnamese participants will include singers Ha Anh Tuan, Phuong Vy, Anh Khoa, Hoang Hai, Luu Huong Giang and hiphop dancing troupe Big Toe.

The show will go on in Ha Long city at 8pm, April 3, at Hoang Gia stage, with singers Ha Anh Tuan, Anh Khoa, Hoang Hai, Nguyen Ngoc Anh, Hoang Nghiep, Hoang Yen and the Big Toe.

In Can Tho on April 10, the tour will continue at Outdoor Sports Centre at 5pm, with Ha Anh Tuan, Anh Khoa, May Trang group, Nam Cuong, Yen Trang, Yen Nhi and Thien Minh.

The American band, The Click Five, recipients of the Knockout Award at the MTV Asia Awards, will headline the final show at Military Zone 7 Stadium in HCM City on April 17. As avid supporters of MTV EXIT’s initiative to end human trafficking, the band is thrilled to return to Southeast Asia once again to lend their voices to this urgent cause.

The last show will feature Vietnamese singers Ha Anh Tuan, Anh Khoa, Phuong Vy, Luu Huong Giang and May Trang group. The MTV Exit show in HCM City is expected to attract more than 25,000 people.

Ha Anh Tuan will join all four shows as a singer and a show host. In a 4-minute video clip introducing MTV Exit, screened at a press conference about MTV Exit on March 23, Tuan spoke out against human trafficking.

The Click Five.

Rocker Anh Khoa exclaimed, “I’m proud and excited to be a part of the MTV EXIT campaign in Vietnam. I encourage everyone to attend these free concerts and be a part of history. Human trafficking happens all over the world and maybe just right under our noses. We are all affected one way or another. I hope the campaign will give everyone information to live safely.”

All concerts will be aired on VTV and YanTV. Tickets are free and delivered via various channels. For ticketing information, please go to www.mtvexit.org or www.hoahoctro.vn.

Concert footage will be used to produce a series of nationally-televised programs on YanTV, the campaign’s official music channel.

“We are thrilled to announce MTV EXIT Live in Viet Nam,” said MTV EXIT’s director, Simon Goff.

“The power and influence of music is a great force for change. By holding this concert tour across the country, we are harnessing this power; using it to inform and mobilise young people in the fight against human trafficking,” he added.

The MTV Exit (End Exploitation and Trafficking) concert series in Vietnam is part of the MTV EXIT campaign to fight human trafficking. MTV EXIT, which is produced by the MTV Europe Foundation in partnership with the US Agency for International Development and the Australian Government’s Agency for International Development, has held 15 concerts across Asia over the past two years, including Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Nepal, Taiwan and the Philippines.

MTV Exit Live in Vietnam is produced in partnership with USAID, AUSAID, Phibious, Campaign Solutions, An Thuan Media and XPRC.

The mighty waterways of Vietnam

We are the tourist attraction.
Dinner is served on the Bassac’s rear deck in courses — wine, delicate spring rolls, sea bass, fruit. The boat is built for 24 passengers, but there are just three of us — me and a honeymoon couple from Scotland, Jo and Jon who, fortunately for me, are in their trip’s second week and up for air.
We linger on deck in the humid night, laughing and talking politics.
And suddenly it hits me. I am on the Mekong River in Vietnam. On a cruise. Eating banana crepes and drinking Chardonnay.
My, how the world does change.
American-Vietnamese relations normalized only 14 years ago, finally allowing tourism and trade between the former enemies. Now, Americans are third among nationalities that travel to Vietnam, with 333,000 arriving so far this year. Only residents of China and South Korea visit more.
Tourist cruises are popular on both the Mekong in the south and Halong Bay in the north. The Mekong is three hours west of downtown Ho Chi Minh City (better known as Saigon); Halong Bay is three hours east of Hanoi.
Most cruises last one or two nights, but some are as long as six. Cost depends on what tour you choose and whether the trip is bought directly or negotiated by your tour operator, but generally it’s about $250-$300 per night per person.
Southern comfort: Mekong River
The Bassac II is just 2 years old and has 12 cabins. Constructed by hand of teak and oak, it is reminiscent of a typical Vietnamese fishing boat, but on a large, luxury scale. Rooms have teak walls, private baths, soft beds and air conditioning, and they smell of lemon grass. Passengers can lounge on the open front or covered rear deck; a bar is on the lower level.
The Bassac offers different itineraries, but mine began in the town of Cai Be and ended in Can Tho, famous for its “floating village” of fishermen and traders.
From Cai Be, the cruise takes a branch of the Mekong called Tien Giang, and then turns onto Cho Lach, one of the many canals that create a virtual highway of water throughout the Mekong Delta. In midafternoon, it stops near a village on the small Mang Thit River, which passengers can visit via a small speedboat. (Warning: It’s hot and humid, so take water, sunscreen and bug spray.)
There, you get a glimpse of ordinary life, where families live in palm-leaf houses surrounded by their dogs, chickens and children. Most have electricity and television. Before going back to the boat, you can have tea and a snack of pineapple with a local family.
After cruising a few more hours, then anchoring for the night, the Bassac II starts at dawn, passes the floating market Tra On and then heads north to its final destination, the city of Can Tho.
Can Tho’s floating market is both fascinating and horrifying. You get to see the remarkably efficient trade between farmers, fishermen and locals — a sort of Eastern Market on the water. You also see that everything organic — lettuce leaves, duck guts, human waste, pineapple stalks, soap suds — all get tossed into the wide, muddy fast-moving river. (Vietnam is just beginning to work on fixing its environmental issues.)
Me Kong means “Mother River.” And that is what it is, the world’s 11th longest river, winding 2,700 miles from Tibet to Vietnam, splitting into nine fingers of water through the delta to the ocean.
One week later, I have another experience on a Vietnam overnight cruise — this one about 1,000 miles north at Halong Bay.
Northern exposure: Halong Bay
Halong Bay is the top tourist attraction in Vietnam, with 3.8 million people visiting this year. But this cruise doesn’t start well. Because of smog, I can barely see our boat, the Halong Jasmine, anchored near the end of the dock. The legendary emerald water is the color of khaki. The mysterious rock formations that make Halong Bay a UNESCO World Heritage site are swathed in a uniform haze.
“Mist” the staff calls it. Sure, right, that’s what China calls its pollution, too.
Within 24 hours, I’m glad I came.
Halong Bay is on Vietnam’s east coast, connected to the Gulf of Tonkin and the South China Sea. It’s unique because of its hundreds of huge limestone pillars sticking out of the water like God’s knuckles or, as they say in Vietnam, dragon’s babies.
UNESCO’s World Heritage designation covers about 1,000 of the islands. To get out to them, you need a boat. My choice: the 10-month-old Jasmine, a 24-room boat owned by the Cruise Halong company.
With three decks, the Jasmine’s dé cor is inspired by 1930s French Indochina, with satin curtains, teak beds and curved chairs.
For lunch, the 42 passengers are fed prawns, fish and strong Vietnamese coffee in a spacious dining room. Then the Jasmine anchors for the afternoon off T Top Island, a conical-shaped tiny spit of land. A pretty, crescent sandy beach welcomes swimmers. A 400-step climb to a vista entices the ultra-hearty.
We are hardly alone at the island. At least 27 other boats float nearby. Halong Bay has more than 400 tour boats, so many that the Vietnamese government has banned new ones.
In late afternoon, the “mist” fades and the islands grow clearer. We anchor near a fishing village with about 80 brightly colored floating houses. Steep vertical limestone cliffs loom above. Dogs bark. Voices float over the water. Some passengers go kayaking. Astonishingly young children — ages 4 to 7, it looks like — paddle out alone in tiny bamboo and wood boats to sell shells and drinks.
As the sun sets, a crescent moon appears. Tiny lights go on in the houses, powered by electric generators. A thumping Vietnamese version of hip-hop blares through the dark.
Quang Ninh province’s department of tourism predicts 4.8 million tourists to Halong Bay next year. So it is easy to worry. Vietnam seems to be risking its most fabulous tourist attraction in the name of progress. Still, like the Bassac, the Halong Jasmine is a pleasure. Well-run, efficient, excellent service, good food and rooms that look more like a hotel room than any cruise ship make the visit, despite my misgivings, guiltily enjoyable.
Ellen Creager writes for the Detroit Free Press.

Motorbike taxi team for tourist in resort city

Fantastic! Only in Viet Nam!” – that was the comment from David, an Australian tourist, about the motorbike taxi team for tourism in the foggy city Da Lat.
That is a special riding team of 78 members undertaking long-time tours through Viet Nam, some of which are roughly a month. All of them are very fluent in English. Some can even speak German, or French. The team also owns a quite ‘western style’ website: http://www.dalat-easyrider.com.vn/
The outstanding figures
It is quite difficult to arrange a meeting with these motorbike riders as at this time they are on Hon Khoai Island of Ca Mau Province, another time they are exploring Nguom Ngao Cave of Cao Bang with tourists.
At last, we scheduled a meeting with them, not at a certain street corner or sidewalk, but at a deluxe café specialized in serving foreigners on Phan Dinh Phung Street, Da Lat City. ‘Rocky’ Thien, a member of the team, told us while busy with his computer, “Our daily task is to check our e-mail and Web site to give advice as well as to accept booking requirements of tourists to any places in Viet Nam.”
“At first, we were quite afraid when encountering foreigners since we are only good at their languages, not at cultural and historical knowledge of Viet Nam or other countries. However, because of the urge to earn our living as well as our passion for traveling, we trained ourselves in those fields and our tourism competence, thus becoming very professional”, rider An said.
Rides take tourists to Dac Lac, Nha Trang, Phan Thiet, and Ninh Thuan and help them get accustomed to the job. Their salary is now more than enough for the daily needs of their family. The team operates in an orderly way with a captain, a vice-captain, a discipline board, a financial board, and a money keeper. ‘Rocky’ Thien said, “They are solely to ensure an effective operation. They take no salary for these tasks.”
‘Rocky’ Thien was born in 1979 and got acquainted with the job of a taxi motorbike rider when he was still a tourism student at Da Lat University. From a part time job, it has become his main pursuit until now. Other team members from different areas have done various jobs before: ‘Rocky’ Thien used to be the owner of two restaurants, Mr. Duong was once a soldier, Mr. Long Duc used to be the leader of an interpreter team for Vietnamese workers in Germany, and ‘professor’ An was a French language teacher before 1975.
Many interests

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