Tourism prices inflated during holidays
Traveling during long holidays is the trend of the times. And despite the economic difficulties, tourist destinations are still crowded. So the story of people racing to rip off tourists at festivals, tourist destinations... is blooming again.
There is still no effective medicine.cure for "ripping off" tourists
"Guillotines" are everywhere
According to many tourists, the prices of some services during the April 30 and May 1 tourist seasons this year are still competing to "inflate" prices despite the economic downturn. Tourists to major tourist destinations mostly have to pay 2-4 times higher than normal room rates. If the daily room rate that tourists only have to pay is 350,000 VND/day, it has now increased to 1.4 million/day. That is the room rate at hotels on Da Nang beach. The room rate in Bai Chay, Quang Ninh is much higher. Even though customers have to pay 2.5 million VND/day for a room, there are still no rooms available, which is why many public and private hotels have taken advantage of the opportunity to "inflate" prices.
Mr. Pham Van Khoa, a tourist, shared: I took my wife and children to the Carnival. The whole family was lucky to rent a pretty satisfactory room. But the price was too expensive. The price per day was 2.5 million. Ms. Lan from Hoan Kiem, Hanoi, just left her tour of Sam Son, Thanh Hoa and returned home, frustrated, saying: The price to rent a chair on the beach increased 5 times the normal price, on normal days it only costs 20-30 thousand VND, now tourists have to pay up to 150,000 VND/sitting.
It can be said that the room rental price has cost tourists a large amount of money, but the holiday-related services also compete to "inflate" prices to take advantage of tourists. The seafood shops attract the most customers. The price of seafood has also increased by one and a half times, double compared to normal days: 1kg of fresh squid ranges from 300 to 500 thousand VND, 1kg of crab on normal days is about 300 thousand VND, now up to 800 thousand VND, 1kg of geoduck is 200 thousand VND, now up to 500 thousand VND... Not only that, many other types of services also take advantage of this. Just taking a motorbike taxi from the hotel to the beach (less than 1km) tourists have to pay up to 30 thousand VND.
Not only do tourist attractions experience "rip-offs" but this phenomenon is present in almost all places visited by tourists. For example, the price of the Ba Na cable car increased from 320,000 VND/person to 380,000 VND/person. Room prices in neighboring provinces such as Hue and Hoi An also increased by about two times. Many rooms from about 400,000 VND/day increased to 800,000 VND/day. Many tourists reported that in Da Lat, some mini hotels cost 400,000 VND/day while on normal days they only cost 250,000 VND/day... It can be said that domestic tourism, when scheduled, competes to increase prices, has become a very familiar story.
Domestic tourism, if not careful will lose at home
We cannot let the opportunistic, opportunistic tourism style displease visitors, so many provinces have come up with measures to prevent the situation of overcharging tourists. Some localities such as Quang Ninh, Da Nang... have required all accommodation establishments to publicly announce room rates. In Quang Ninh, tourists who are forced to pay higher prices can directly report their complaints via the hotline numbers: 0919919789; 03.33822243; 0913267110 or 03.33822232.
According to many tourists, if the problem of "cutting and slashing" is not resolved, the risk of losing customers will be in the near future, and the fact that domestic tours lose at home is real. If the management agency continues to let price management run wild, the price to pay will be huge because tourists are tending to ignore domestic tours. Currently, domestic tour prices are much higher than tours to Thailand and Cambodia. A tour to the Central region costs about 8 million VND/person (last year only 5 million VND) while a tour to Cambodia during the holidays only costs 4 million VND. Many opinions say that if we let the situation of "cutting and slashing" and increasing prices during the holidays continue, it is no different from encouraging people to enjoy Vietnamese holidays and Tet.
Deputy Director General of the General Department of Tourism Hoang Thi Diep admitted that the quality of services as well as the management of tourism activities still have many shortcomings, the problem of overcharging tourists at tourist destinations and festivals always causes headaches for managers. However, up to now, there has not been an effective medicine to cure the disease of "overcharging" tourists, but only solutions to call on people and businesses to raise public awareness or inspect to detect the situation of overcharging tourists... Therefore, if local management agencies do not have measures to completely handle the situation of overcharging tourists, the damage will not only come to travel agencies but also to the entire Vietnamese tourism industry.
According to Daioanket