Choosing nearby beaches
In Long Bien district in Hanoi, many 30-40 seat coaches are present early in the morning of Saturdays and Sundays, which come to pick up travelers to beaches. Two weeks ago, local residents were eager to register trips to Cua Lo, Tuan Chau, Ha Long and Sam Son beaches. A group of coevals left for Cua Lo last week. Meanwhile, NA, a company located in the district, organized a tour for its staff to Van Don-Quan Lan.
In order to save money, northern travelers choose nearby beaches to go relaxing.
According to Nguyen Cong Hoan, Deputy Director of Hanoi Redtours, the number of travelers witnesses a boom in July. The number of registered tours to the central region and the south has increased by 50 percent. Especially, people now favor the tours to Nha Trang and Da Nang, thanks to many choices with airlines and high quality of services. Meanwhile, those travelers, who choose to travel to the north, regularly register the tours to Quang Binh, Hue and Lang Co.
Tran The Dung, Deputy Director of HCM City-based The He Tre travel firm, said that not many people traveled in June, because their children had to take high school final exams and prepare for the university entrance exams. Therefore, the trips have been delayed until July.
Dung has reported a 20 percent increase in the number of travelers in July in comparison with the same period of the last year. Meanwhile, Vietravel hopes that it will serve 125,000 travelers in 2011’s summer, an increase of 25 percent over the same period of the last year.
The tours to beaches remain the most favorite tours for travelers. However, they tend to go to nearby beaches this summer instead of going farer in order to save money. Travelers in HCM City take short distance tours to Vung Tau, Phan Thiet or Ninh Chu.
The national flag air carrier Vietnam Airlines has reported that the domestic aviation market in the first six months of the year, witnessed a 20 percent growth rate in comparison with the same period of the last year. Airlines have all provided more flights to serve the increasing number of tourists. The flights to Da Lat, Phu Quoc, Hai Phong and Hue City have seen the number of passengers up by 30-40 percent.
Con Dao, Phu Quoc islands attract northern travelers
Con Dao and Phu Quoc are now not the choice of southern travelers any more, because of the high tour fees (the lowest rate is 4.5 million dong per traveler for 3-day-and-2-night tour). Meanwhile, the two localities have become the choice of more and more northern travelers, especially when direct flights from Hanoi to Phu Quoc have been launched. Besides, there are also the flights from Can Tho to the island.
The tours to Phu Quoc island (travelers can take directly flights with Air Mekong), including the ones provided by Vietravel (9.8 million dong per traveler for 4-day-and-3-night tour, 4-star resort), by Hanoi Redtours (7.9-8.5 million dong for 4-day-and-3-night tour, 3-star resort) have been selling very well.
With direct flights, travelers, instead of transiting in HCM City and wasting three hours at the HCM City airport, can go directly to Phu Quoc, where they have lunches and walk on Sao beach with white sand and blue sea water.
Nguyen Duy Quang, a business officer of Air Mekong has revealed that the direct flights from Hanoi to Phu Quoc always have the occupied seat percentage at 90-95 percent. In the three months of 2010’s summer, the airline only served 100 passengers who flew from Hanoi to Phu Quoc, while the number of passengers is expected to reach 400 in June-August of 2011.
Meanwhile, Dung from The He Tre said the number of southern travelers to the islands has decreased. In previous years, the firm served 600-700 travelers, while the number is thought to drop to 300-400.
Ngoc Ha