People visit booths of travel agents at the HCM City Travel Fair held at the September 23 Park in District 1. The four-day fair opened on Thursday and expected to attract 250,000 people seeking tourism products. — VNA/VNS Photo An Hiếu

HCM CITY— Almost every low-cost tour offered at the HCM City Travel Fair sold out on the first day, travel agents said.

The fair that opened on Thursday at September 23 Park in District 1 offered discounts of 20-40 per cent.

More than 150 booths, including 44 travel agents from HCM City and 50 travel agents and 39 tourism agencies from other cities and provinces, are participating in the four-day event.

At 7.30am on the opening day, visitors queued up outside the Vietravel booth to buy domestic tours at a discount of 65 per cent.

Vietravel ended up selling more than 1,100 tours for VNĐ12 billion (US$540,500).

Trần Thị Việt Hương, director of Vietravel’s marketing and communication department, said despite the low prices there would be no difference in service quality.

Nearly 400 visitors booked tours with Saigontourist on the first day, with three-day tours to Phú Quốc Island at VNĐ2.67 million (US$120) selling out right in the morning.

Tours to central and northern destinations with a discount of VNĐ5.2 million were also fully booked.

Việt Media Travel is offering a 50 per cent discount on destinations in the centre and north during the summer holidays, and discounts of VNĐ400,000-3 million on overseas tours.

It is also offering hundreds of gifts worth nearly VNĐ200 million (US$9,000) on bookings.

“The company will ensure the quality of services on discount tours,” Lâm Thái Hiền of Việt Media Travel promised.

Cholontourist was offering various domestic tours at discounts of VNĐ200,000-500,000 along with gifts besides lucky draws for free tours, Hồ Thị Bích Thủy, head of its marketing and communication department, said.

According to the travel companies, many of the discounts have been possible due to attractive promotions offered by airlines, hotels, resorts and restaurants.

Ngô Thị Thu Hiền, Vietnam Airlines’ sales and promotion general manager in HCM City, said the airline offered tickets on domestic routes at prices starting from VNĐ199,000.

Nguyễn Thị Hồng Thúy of HCM City’s District 3 said she wanted to buy cheap tours for her family to travel during the summer holidays.

“I planned to book tours for the four members of my family to travel to Thailand.”

Many travel agents were offering big discounts and so there were plenty of choices at the fair, she said.

Domestic tourism promotion

The annual fair sought to promote domestic tourism, Nguyễn Thị Khánh, deputy chairwoman of the HCM City Tourism Association, said.

Travel agents in HCM City have signed agreements with tourism service providers in Phú Quốc Island and the four central provinces of Bình Định, Thừa Thiên-Huế, Quảng Bình, and Phú Yên.

Under the agreements, restaurants, hotels and tourist attractions offer promotions, enabling tour prices to be lowered by 20-40 per cent.

Travel agents in HCM City and service providers elsewhere would closely co-operate to provide affordable tours of good quality to encourage people to travel across the country, she said.

Nguyễn Quốc Thành, deputy director of Thừa Thiên-Huế Province’s Tourism Association, said the tourism stimulus programme not only offered cheap prices but also high quality.

Last year around 130,000 tours and 49,760 tickets were sold under the stimulus programme. — VNS