Travellers during the upcoming April 30 to May 1 long weekend holiday have showed a slight drop in numbers, as the Hung King's Death Anniversary Festival last week had already given people a chance to get away.
 |
| Self-guided tours are the most popular option chosen by travellers. (Photo: Hoai Nam) |
Many tours are still available for booking
Due to a busy working schedule, Nguyen Thi Le, head of the Human Resources Division from a trade company in District No.2 (HCMC), could not find the time to book a holiday tour for the company until now. Le worried that all tours might have been fully booked, but to her surprise, when she called up a travel agency in the city, a number of great options were still available.
Le said with excitement, "I cannot believe that we are still be able to book a tour to Nha Trang for almost 20 people from our company. It is exactly as we had planned!" This year's holiday from April 30 to May 1 doesn't seem to carry the same frenzy about getting away as usual in regards to the number of travellers compared to other years. This is probably due to the fact that this year there are two big holidays in two consecutive weeks.
Pham Duc Hoa, from Saigontourist Travel Agency reported that tour booking this holiday is not as intense as it immediately follows the big holiday to celebrate Hung King's Death Anniversary, and is close to students examination period. "Tours to Phan Thiet, Da Lat and a few other places are still available. Accommodation prices surely have increased during this peak period, but are not ridiculously high. A large number of hotel rooms in Nha Trang and Da Lat are still vacant," Hoa added.
The amount of travellers this holiday season is high however, not as high as the travel agencies had expected. Many tours are still open to customers, even though it is only a few more days to the holiday. People who want to travel can still book tours to great destinations without fearing that it might be too late.
Tour prices have gone up by 15 - 20% compared with non-holidays however, the change is not considered to be too drastic.
Self-guided tours becoming popular
Besides the travelling-by-tour option, many people are choosing to organise their own trips, especially if they travel with family or are a group of young people. This option is great with places that travellers are already familiar with.
Hoang Manh Tien, from Ward No.9, District No.11 shared that instead of booking a tour as usual, this year his family and a colleague's family organised their trip to Nha Trang themselves, from hiring a car to drive to booking a hotel in advance. He added, "Many times I have travelled by tours, but I was never really happy with the service that they provided. Moreover, when we're on a tour, we have to depend on them in regards to time and the tour schedule, and with someone with a family like me, it makes travelling very inconvenient. On the other hand, with self-guided tours, we are totally in control with where we want to go, the type of accommodation we'd like to choose and especially food."
Nga, who works for a communication company in Binh Thanh District, and her colleagues, have also organised a trip to Phan Thiet themselves this holiday. "We have hired a car and planned everything for our trip for about a week now. One of our colleagues is from Binh Thuan (near Phan Thiet), so we consider that as though we already have a guide. It feels much more comfortable travelling this way," Nga said.
Car hire services in Ho Chi Minh City are currently in strong demand. Many of these businesses are finding it difficult to meet the customer demands, despite having already increased their prices by more than 50% against their normal prices.
"Innova car is normally hired at VND 450,000 (USD 23). Now it has gone up to VND 800,000 (USD 41) per day, but we are still unable to meet the demands. Other car prices have increased respectively," a car hire service owner on Cach Mang Thang Tam Road said.
