Expensive airfares, the downside of domestic tourism

Ticket prices are too expensive, customers "run away"

Up to this point, many travel companies have finalized tours for the April 30-May 1 holiday, especially for tours to foreign countries. In particular, the rate of outbound travel has increased sharply, often accounting for 60-70% of the tour structure at businesses.

Talking to reporters, Ms. Ngu Thi Ngan, General Director of Hanoi Tourism Company, said that tours to foreign countries such as Japan, Taiwan (China), Korea, China,... are fully booked, the company still has to open more bookings and request more charter flight tickets.

Expensive domestic airfares, combined with the fact that Vietnamese people have been traveling around the country a lot in the past 3 years, have made Vietnamese people very eager to travel abroad. In fact, according to Ms. Ngan, the price of foreign tours has also increased by about 30%, with some tours increasing by up to 60%, but it is still much lower than the domestic increase thanks to separate promotions and subsidies. For example, a tour to Phoenix Ancient Town costs 16-17 million VND (holidays) compared to 13-14 million VND (weekdays), for a 6-day, 5-night trip; or a tour to Bali (Indonesia), Malaysia, Thailand, etc., the cost has increased by about 30-40% but is still reasonable compared to the general level before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Vietnamese tourists visit Zhangjiajie - Tianmen Mountain when China reopens tourism. Photo: Alibaba Tours

Meanwhile, domestic tours do not have many incentives, the prices are much higher, partly due to expensive airfares. Ms. Ngan said that the number of promotional tickets is less than at the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022, when prices were reduced to stimulate tourism. Therefore, the larger the group, the higher the airfare because the proportion of cheap tickets allocated for tourism is only a certain amount.

In particular, at the destination of Phu Quoc, the high ticket prices caused customers to cancel their entire travel program. Mr. Nguyen Vu Khac Huy - General Director of Vina Phu Quoc Travel, commented that not only on the occasion of April 30 - May 1, but since the Lunar New Year 2023 until now, the ticket prices for the Hanoi - Phu Quoc route have been very expensive both during the week and on weekends. Service units such as hotels, restaurants, and transportation all responded that many groups of tourists had finalized their services, but when asked about the airfare price, they found it was higher than the full package service and shook their heads and "ran away".

Mr. Huy cited that while the round-trip ticket price for the Hanoi - Phu Quoc route was up to 6-8 million VND/ticket, the full-service package at this time last year only fluctuated from 5-6 million VND including the airfare. That is the ticket price on weekdays, but on holidays, "it goes without saying," he lamented.

The number of visitors to Phu Quoc has decreased, so the Kien Giang Tourism Association, the Provincial Tourism Promotion Center, and tourism businesses are waiting for the upcoming meeting, organized by the Kien Giang Provincial People's Committee with the participation of airlines, to propose solutions to reduce airfares. He said that service prices have dropped so low that they cannot be reduced after the pandemic. Moreover, many units have accepted to remove the 10-30% surcharge on holidays but still have no customers.

Mr. Nguyen Vu Khac Huy also admitted that the group ticket prices according to the airline's series booking for travel in previous years were still stable, the prices were almost the same between airlines, but this year they are much more expensive.

Reduced destination competition

Mr. Nguyen Cong Hoan - General Director of Flamingo Redtours, said that the high price of air tickets has caused the price of domestic tours to increase. The reduced attractiveness of the products will affect the competitiveness of the destination, not only domestic destinations but also the image of Vietnamese tourism compared to other countries.

Domestic airfares on some routes in Vietnam are expensive during the peak holiday season of April 30 - May 1. Photo: VNA

In Vietnam, to get preferential airfare discounts, travel companies must make early deposits and hold onto tickets in large quantities, but also face risks if the tourist market is not good and they have to sell them off. Therefore, travel agencies really hope that airfares will remain stable, and a price increase is beyond their expectations.

Travel agencies themselves also sympathize with the difficulties of domestic aviation. As Mr. Nguyen Vu Khac Huy explained, the high domestic ticket prices are partly due to the fact that domestic airlines have no other sources to support their difficulties, such as the lack of high-end customers, destinations are threatening to increase ticket prices, visa policies have not changed much, and food services, restaurants, etc. lack connection, each doing their own thing, so in the end, tourists have to bear the brunt.

Furthermore, Mr. Nguyen Cong Hoan acknowledged that not only Vietnam but also other countries' airfares have increased, such as from Vietnam to Thailand which used to be only 5-6 million VND, now increased to 8-9 million VND, to Korea from 10 million VND increased to 14-15 million VND. Here, airlines must also consider efficiency when considering increasing flights, or how to reduce ticket prices.

Ngoc Ha