Tourists prefer to book rooms online

Internet booking is gradually becoming popular among tourists coming to Vietnam.Malepreferred over booking through travel agents, tour operators or directly with hotels, a Grant Thornton survey found.

According to a survey report on the Vietnamese hotel industry recently released by Grant Thornton, in 2012, the number of international tourists to Vietnam continued to grow, reaching 6.8 million. Of these, Asian tourists still ranked first with an increase of 5.5% compared to the previous year, in contrast to the decline in tourists from Europe and America.

Internet bookings have grown over the past year.
Source: Grant Thornton VietnamMale

The survey also showed that tourists are now more familiar with booking hotels online than traditional methods, due to its convenience and lower costs. Specifically, the proportion of tourists booking hotels online increased by 1.4% to 16.1%, while booking through travel agents and tour operators, or booking directly with hotels, decreased by 0.3% and 0.9%, respectively.

Business travelers, individual tourists and group tourists have always been the three largest groups of visitors over the past 10 years. In 2012, business travelers increased by 6.9% while the proportion of group tourists decreased by 2.7%.

Due to the economic downturn and the increase in new room supply of about 20,000 rooms, the average room price in 2012 decreased slightly by 0.5% to 90.4 USD compared to 2011.

Looking at each type of hotel, the average room rate of 3-star and 5-star hotels increased by 2.2% and 1.2% respectively, while the average room rate of 4-star hotels decreased by 4.8% last year. Mr. Kenneth Atkinson, CEO of Grant Thornton Vietnam, said he was also surprised by the fact that 3- and 5-star hotels had a more effective year, even though previous predictions had suggested that 5-star hotels were oversupplied.

However, in terms of capacity, the number of 3-star and 4-star hotels increased, while the number of 5-star hotels decreased.

By region, the Central Highlands has the highest increase in room prices (up 13.3%), while the average room prices in both the North and the South areMaleare all reduced. Especially in the regionMale, room rates fell by 7.6% year-on-year. This led to room occupancy rates in the region.Male1.2% better than last year, while the other two regions still declined.

Grant Thornton's survey also shows a positive sign in the awareness and management of quality standards in the Vietnamese hotel service industry.MaleThis is most clearly seen in the domainMalewhen 60% of hotels had major changes, while the rate in the North was 52.6% and in the Central - Highlands was 52.2%.

According to (QĐND) - LC