Tourists join a tour in Dien Bien in the early days of 2022. Photo: TST tourist

Restore domestic tourism market safely

Surveys by famous travel companies in Ho Chi Minh City such as Vietravel, Saigontourist, Fiditour, TST tourist show the number of tourists booking tours during the Lunar New Year and early Spring has increased. Each place has recorded thousands of visitors who have registered for the tour and the trend will still increase.

According to Nguyen Minh Man, Director of Communications - Marketing TST tourist, currently the number of tourists registering for tours during the Lunar New Year in 2022 has reached about 40%. The current tours of interest spread widely from the East - Northwest region, to the Central and Western provinces.

Tourists mainly choose to travel in groups of families and friends. Besides the package tours, the company provides additional departures in private groups or separate services such as air tickets and hotels for tourists.

Saigontourist Travel Service Company said that demand for tour packages, services, air tickets, car rental services is increasing with more than 3,000 bookings throughout the system. The situation tends to be better than the same period last year.

Similarly, a representative of Vietravel Company said that it is expected that from December 25 to January 10, the company will serve about 5,000 guests. The number of visitors registering for the Tet tour has reached about 50% of the plan. Destinations chosen by customers are Phu Quoc, East - Northwest, Quy Nhon, Da Nang, Da Lat.

Currently, many localities have restarted safe inter-provincial and inter-regional domestic tourism with tourism stimulus policies being implemented. Thereby, tourism activities in the localities have prospered. In December 2021 and the first days of the new year, Kien Giang welcomed nearly half a million tourists, including 3,296 international visitors.

Hanoi also welcomed over 4 million domestic tourists, Da Nang received over 1.1 million, Lam Dong welcomed 2.2 million, Quang Ninh received 4.3 million, Ninh Binh received 1.3 million, Thanh Hoa received 3.4 million visitors.

Notably, according to information from Oxalis Adventure, with tourism product "Conquer Son Doong - the world's largest cave", all 1,000 seats of this tour in 2022 have been sold out. The company has just opened the Son Doong expedition tour and quickly received nearly 100 guests, most of whom are foreigners.

Open the door, raise hope

Besides, the international tourist market is also gradually resuming. After Quang Nam, Quang Ninh, Da Nang, Khanh Hoa and Kien Giang (Phu Quoc), recently, Binh Dinh and Ho Chi Minh City have also been allowed by the Government to pilot the welcoming of foreign tourists. It is expected that in the near future, visitors to Vietnam who are eligible for Covid-19 vaccination will only have to go on a package tour in the first three days after entry, instead of the current seven days.

Those who have not been vaccinated can also travel to Vietnam as long as they comply with regulations on testing, pandemic prevention and package tours in the first seven days after entry.

In addition, after the end of the trip, guests can return home on commercial flights, not necessarily on charter flights as at present. The easing of pandemic prevention and control measures along with the increasing number of regular international commercial flights will open more opportunities to attract tourists, however, many businesses still think that the market will recover slowly.

In order to adapt to the new normal, travel businesses put safety first, by applying safety standards, suitable for each destination, accommodation establishment, restaurant service, means of transport, in communication and service activities. In addition, tour products are also renewed by travel businesses to prepare for the wave of domestic and international tourism in 2022.

Nguyen Minh Man said TST has formed short-term city tours in districts in the city such as the tour "City by the green river" to explore Thu Duc city, Can Gio experience tour. In addition, the company has built travel programs to the Northwest region that are attracting many tourists to participate. With these new tours, they will not only attract domestic tourists but also international tourists and overseas Vietnamese in 2022.