Vietnam travel firms sell outbound tours as border restrictions ease

Leading travel company Vietravel will launch a four-day Phnom Penh and Siem Reap tour package priced at up to VND 19.9 million (US$883.58) and a five-day tour of the Maldives, famous for its pristine islands with turquoise waters, priced at around VND19.9 million (US$883.58) 69 million VND per person.

Nguyen Nguyet Van Khanh, Deputy Head of Marketing at Vietravel told VnExpress International Company officials met tourism officials in Thailand, the Philippines and Japan last month to discuss resuming travel to those countries.

In addition to focusing on the recovery of the domestic travel market, Vietravel, which has already started operating its own airline, will gradually resume outbound travel as many Asian countries reopen their borders to international tourists and ease travel restrictions, Khanh said.

Ho Chi Minh City-based Saigontourist offers five-day Maldives tour packages priced up to VND 65.99 million per person, with departures scheduled for February 24 and March 17-31.

The company also sells six-day packages to San Francisco and Los Angeles for nearly VND90 million per person. The tour is scheduled to begin on February 26.

A representative of Saigontourist said the company will soon launch tours to Bangkok and Pattaya, Thailand, which were popular destinations for Vietnamese before the pandemic.

Nguyen Minh Man, marketing director of Ho Chi Minh City-based TST Tourist Co., said his company is preparing to resume outbound tours to Southeast Asian countries, Japan and South Korea by the end of this month and early next.

Travel agencies say it is time to resume outbound travel as Vietnam has officially resumed regular commercial flights and regional countries lift entry restrictions to welcome foreign tourists.

Vietnam’s aviation industry officially reopened scheduled flights between Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok, Phnom Penh, San Francisco, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei and Tokyo from January 1, and restarted more routes to Europe at the end of last month.

Nearly two years after borders were closed due to the pandemic, Laos, the Philippines and Thailand have reopened for international travel but exempted from quarantine.

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Thu Anh, a staff member at the Ho Chi Minh City office, said she had planned to visit Thailand during the four-day Reunification Day (April 39-May 2) holiday, but was still waiting for consistent regulations to finalize the itinerary.

“I’m afraid I’ll contract the new Omicron variant while traveling and be taken to a centralized quarantine facility when I get home,” she said.

“Also, with limited flights, tours are much more expensive than pre-pandemic levels. This made me hesitant to book a tour and choose to wait a little longer,” she added.

Representatives of several travel agencies said that due to the limited number of scheduled flights, the current tour price is 20-30% higher than before the epidemic. They also acknowledged that many would-be tourists are still concerned about quarantine requirements when they return home.

Under current rules, fully vaccinated people and people who have recovered from Covid-19 will only have to self-quarantine for three days upon arrival in Vietnam.

Everyone, except children under the age of two, must test negative for the novel coronavirus using a PCR method within 72 hours of departure.

Vietravel’s Khanh hopes the government will soon announce the official timetable for a full reopening of the tourism industry, so that tour companies have enough time to make plans.

On Tuesday, Premier Fan Mingqing has entrusted the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to work with relevant agencies to announce a roadmap for the full recovery of tourism as soon as possible.

Earlier this month, the prime minister asked authorities to prepare for the reopening of borders to foreign tourists no later than the end of April, preferably the end of March.