Travel companies in Vietnam are offering numerous outbound tours to local tourists as the Southeast Asian country resumes commercial flights and many countries adopt open tourism policies.

Aside from package tours, many enterprises have introduced air ticket and hotel booking services to meet various traveling demands which are expected to increase during the upcoming summer and national holidays.

The number of Vietnamese tourists booking summer tours to popular foreign destinations surged as more countries removed COVID-19 testing and quarantine requirements for Vietnamese visitors, according to representatives of several tour operators.

Getting excited to travel abroad again

Two weeks after Vietnam fully restored international tourism on March 15, Saigontourist, a leading tour operator, brought several groups of travelers to Dubai, the Maldives, and the U.S. as they had signed up for the trips before the official reopening.

Saigontourist is offering many outbound products to favorite destinations such as Thailand, Singapore, Dubai – Abu Dhabi, Turkey, Australia, Bali, the U.S., and Europe, with package prices starting from VND14.5 million (US$635).

Vietravel is also launching tours to India, Turkey, Cambodia, Thailand, and the Maldives, with weekly services to Dubai and Qatar drawing keen interest from vacationers.

To meet various travel demands, the company has introduced flexible hotel booking services allowing tourists to choose among a two-day stay in Singapore at VND4.6 million ($201), four days in Bali at VND7.99 million ($350) or three days in Thailand at VND7.9 million ($346), depending on the accommodation standards.

“These are new services designed for people who prefer a self-organized trip," Huynh Phan Phuong Hoang, deputy general director of Vietravel, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

"We provide tours to where foreign tourists are welcomed.

"Since April, we will bring tourists to Europe, Australia, and the U.S..” 

Tran Thi Bao Thu, marketing and communication director of Fiditour-Vietluxtour, said the firm’s outbound tourist groups are going to depart from the end of April and more tours will be launched in May and June, which will be the peak of the summer holiday.

However, most trips serve customers’ demands to visit their relatives, attend meetings, and reconnect with their business partners, while just a small number of clients signed up for tourist trips.

Countries and territories with simple entry procedures have become tourist magnets recently, with Singapore among the most attractive destinations.

Starting early this month, some airlines resumed flights to and from Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea, signalling a sharp recovery of the outbound segment in the future, Thu said.

Quarantine requirements still a concern

Tourism reopening largely depends on the capability to solve obstacles and build connections with international partners, as large-scale tourism advertising and promotion programs have yet to be resumed, according to tour operators.

Some countries have kept their quarantine requirements for arrivals, prompting local firms to face unpredictable risks.

Nguyen Son Thuy, general director of Duy Nhat Dong Duong Company, told Tuoi Tre that the enterprise suspended the organization of a charter trip to Thailand for the Songkran water-splashing festival, which takes place in April every year, as bookings fell short of expectations.

Vietnamese tourists are hesitant because the neighboring country still maintains its mandatory quarantine rules, Thuy explained.

Nguyen Minh Man, director for communication, marketing, and IT under TST Tourist Company, said that the soaring demand for traveling abroad is understandable after everyone stayed home for a long time due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

In addition, more and more countries have removed border closures and adopted open traveling policies.

Nonetheless, some destinations still stick to COVID-19 quarantine rules and businesses will carefully consider this risk, Man said, mentioning the story of a Vietnamese tourist who recently tested positive for the virus upon her arrival in Thailand and had to spend VND19 million ($839) on 10-day isolation, though she had obtained a negative test result via the PCR method in Vietnam previously.

“These quarantine policies will result in more financial burdens on tourists. Though outbound tourists are required to buy COVID-19 insurance, they still have to pay for unforeseeable costs, such as isolation expenditures. These risks will pose difficulties to tourists and travel companies,” Man added.

To safely run outbound tours in the current context, local enterprises are giving priority to destinations with simplified entry and health procedures such as France, Italy, Turkey, the Maldives, Dubai, and Singapore.

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