After a period of traveling to nearby destinations in Southeast Asia, Vietnamese tourists began to travel abroad more, going further.

A group of tourists from Saigontourist Travel Service Company in Singapore. Photo: DNCC

Autumn is the time when many tourists buy tours to see yellow and red leaves and enjoy the pleasant weather in some destinations in Northeast Asia and Europe. The recent strong opening in Korea and Japan has revived the market of destinations in these countries, Vietnamese travel businesses are busy bringing visitors to Korea and Japan.

There are retail customers who go on a regular tour, and large numbers of guests in groups are also available. They expect the increasing number of visitors in the fall to create momentum for the upcoming winter and Tet business seasons.

The number of tourists traveling abroad is increasing

According to Mr. Nguyen Huu Y Yen, General Director of Saigontourist Travel Service Company, the number of tourists traveling abroad is increasing. Currently, the company has started to have routes to Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand depart weekly, periodically to Korea for retail customers, then large groups of 200-300 guests; Customers register for routes to the US and Europe quite often, although the visa process is still difficult.

As for Japan, although it officially opened at the beginning of this month, guests have booked tours until October and November, including the combined event tour (MICE).

“The return of MICE customers from businesses is a good thing. A few months ago, many companies did not dare to send employees and customers abroad due to concerns about uncertainties after the epidemic, but now we have received large delegations,” said Mr. Y Yen.

In some other companies, the number of tourists traveling abroad is also increasing gradually, but it is still around in countries in Southeast Asia, where it is convenient to travel and has affordable prices. Tours to Europe and America also have customers but not many and many companies are also offering tours to Japan and Korea.

Ms. Tran Thi Bao Thu, Marketing and Communications Director of Fiditour-Vietluxtour Travel, said that the company has operated quite often routes to Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia while getting ready for the tours to Korea.

According to Ms. Bao Thu, the tour price to Southeast Asia is currently quite good, like the tour to Thailand, the company Fiditour-Vietluxtour is selling about 7-8 million VND/five-day tour to Bangkok – Pattaya.

Foreign representatives promote tourism promotion

In recent days, tourism promotion agencies of Korea, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia… have continuously organized tourism promotion programs in Vietnam and met domestic enterprises to look for exchange opportunities.

Ms. Nguyen Thu Ha, Marketing Director of the Representative Office of the Korea National Administration of Tourism in Vietnam, said that the number of Vietnamese visitors to Korea has increased from 1,000 visitors per week in June – the time when this country has just opened to tourism – up to 7,000 visitors in August.

Generally in the first eight months of this year, there were about 80,000 Vietnamese visitors to South Korea. It is forecasted that the number of visitors may increase higher because the tourism industry enters the peak tourist season in the autumn and will reach 150,000 visitors for the whole year. A very modest (but acceptable) number compared to 550,000 in 2019, the time before the Covid-19 epidemic.

Currently, the country is continuing to organize face-to-face meetings at businesses, seminars, fairs and online advertising, and the number of registered visitors from Vietnam is increasing rapidly.

According to many businessmen, the Vietnamese people’s willingness to travel abroad is very high, although the issuance of tourist visas to Australia, the UK, and South Korea is still slow and takes a long time to wait.

The tourism market will probably be more bustling if the waiting time for procedures is shortened. Currently, there are businesses like Saigontourist Travel to support guests by organizing fingerprints, taking photos and filling out visa applications right at the company to reduce pressure on customers.

@ Saigon Tiep Thi