With
many travel agencies willing to sell their tours at extremely low prices to
attract customers, tourism packages to Vietnam’s central region for Thai
tourists are losing quality.
According to the tourism authorities of the
central provinces, more than 85,000 tourists from Thailand have arrived in the
central region in the first eight months of this year, which is 20 percent of
the total foreign arrivals to the area.
Cao Tri Dung, director of Da Nang-based Vitour
travel agency, said the number of Thai arrivals would soar in next June, when
the Friendship 3 Bridge connecting Thailand’s Nakhon Phanom and Laos’
Khammounan is completed.
However, despite the huge increase in
quantity, the tour packages’ quality is on sharp decline.
The director of a tour organizer said many
travel agencies had rushed to lower their prices to lure customers, making
price per tourist plunge to only US$40 a day from the $60 a day in 2005.
Half of the sum is to pay for transportation
costs and the remaining for accommodation at three-star hotels and other
services.
A tour guide of a travel agency admitted that
some tour organizers had arranged their tourists to visit Hoi An Old Town at
night, when tourism attractions were closed in order to cut down on ticket
fees.
Worse, tourists were forced to travel on
overloaded boats to cut cost, he added.
Some travel agencies said the situation should
soon be improved, otherwise it would have a negative influence on the tourism
industry in the central region.
Nguyen Hang Quy, director of Hue-based Huong
Giang travel agency, said tour prices should be adjusted so that the tour
organizers could provide better services to their customers.
The authorities also had to have measures to
curb the unhealthy competition among travel agencies, he added.
Source: tuoi tre
Business & Investment Opportunities
YourVietnamExpert is a division of Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd, Incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Consulting, Investment and Management, focusing three main economic sectors: International PR; Healthcare & Wellness;and Tourism & Hospitality. We also propose Higher Education, as a bridge between educational structures and industries, by supporting international programs. Sign up with twitter to get news updates with @SaigonBusinessC. Thanks.
No comments:
Post a Comment