The demand for outbound trips during the upcoming 2023 Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday, which starts around the latter half of January, is on the rise, according to many travel companies in Ho Chi Minh City.  

Tran Thi Bao Thu, marketing and communications director of Fiditour-Vietlux, said the company has been developing products and services for Tet since the beginning of the second quarter.

Tours to South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Thailand are among young adults’ favorites while the most-chosen domestic destinations include Phu Quoc Island, Da Nang City-Hue City, Ha Giang Province, and Con Dao Islands.

Thu anticipated that the sales of Tet tours will be about 30-35 percent higher than last year.

The demand for trips to Europe during the Christmas and New Year holidays is also very strong, she assessed.

Customers can enjoy discounted prices for early bookings, according to Tran Quoc Bao, deputy director of Saigontourist Travel Service Company, which has received bookings from over 12,000 customers so far.

It expects to serve more than 20,000 travelers through the two holidays, Bao said.

BenThanh Tourist, another travel company, will offer more than 100 Tet tour packages and looks to attract around 10,000 customers, including 7,000 travelers purchasing outbound trips, according to Tran Phuong Linh, marketing and information technology director.

“Some overseas Tet tours to India, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, and the Philippines have been almost fullly booked, with only two to six slots left for each,” Linh said.

The travel companies all said that tour prices would rise steeply compared to last year due to higher airfare and soaring fuel rates.

However, they are still hopeful about strong growth.

Nguyen Minh Man, communications and marketing director of TSTtourist, which specializes in operating trips to the Middle East, Western and Southern European countries, and the U.S., said that 70 percent of customers prefer traveling during the first four days of the Lunar New Year while the number of tourists choosing to depart before that is increasing.

Some 20 percent of TSTtourist customers want to welcome the New Year abroad, which means that they like to leave the country before the last day of 2022.

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