31 million domestic tourists reported in Jan-Sept

There were up to 31 million domestic tourists recorded in the January-September period, up 11% year-on-year and higher than the expectations of tourism officials.

According to Hoang Thi Diep, deputy head of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), VNAT has received reports of provinces and cities nationwide. Coastal destinations are still the favored options with a high number of domestic tourists flocking to the beaches.Danang, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan and Quang Nam are among the localities seeing high growth rates with 20.5%, 16%, 30.6% and 30.2% respectively.

“We expect to have 35 million for the whole year but the figure has amounted to 31 million. The number of domestic tourists will be higher than expected,” said Hoang Thi Diep.

Due to economic difficulties, many enterprises have launched travel stimulus programs and cooperated with enterprises offering transport and accommodation services to offer low prices to tourists.

Although customers are still carefully selecting tours and their spending by buying short and economical tours, the number of tourists has still increased.

“The number of tourists at our company has risen by an average of 10% from last year’s same period and the number traveling by air has increased by over 30% thanks to several promotions,” said Tran The Dung, deputy director of Young Generation Travel Co.

According to a report of enterprises joining the stimulus program carried out by the HCMC Tourism Association and Vietnam Airlines, over ten travel enterprises sold package air tours to over 23,000 tourists during the four months of promotion, up 46% from last year’s figures. Such promotional tours helped tourists reduce costs by 36-40% compared to normal tours.

Besides, some enterprises in HCMC that are cooperating with VietJetAir said that there were 1,623 tourists buying discounted package tours.

(Source: SGT)