This past summer, the whole family of Ms. Pham Thanh Van (living in District 7, Ho Chi Minh City) went to Quang Ngai to visit their hometown and combine it with summer tourism. Initially, the whole family chose air travel for faster travel, but after considering between air, train and car, Ms. Van's family finally chose to travel by rail because of its safety and reasonable cost.
"A family of 10 people would have to spend more than 40 million VND on a round-trip flight. On the other hand, the taxi ride from Chu Lai or Da Nang airport to their hometown would take from 1 to 3 hours.
Meanwhile, booking a sleeper ticket on the best quality train only costs about 20 million VND. Moreover, traveling by train is suitable for families with elderly people and children like mine" - Ms. Van said.
According to Railway Tourism Joint Stock Company, during the summer and National Day holiday of September 2, many customers registered for railway tours to the Central provinces.
"The company's tours departing from Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang, Tuy Hoa, Quy Nhon, Quang Ngai and Da Nang are all fully booked. The company's railway tours have achieved good growth because train fares are lower than airfares, and the railway industry has put many high-quality train routes into operation," said a representative of the Railway Tourism Joint Stock Company.
Mr. Do Van Thuc, Deputy Director of Dat Viet Tour Tourism Joint Stock Company, said that while air tourism decreased by 70%, the company's rail tourism achieved good growth.
"During the recent summer and National Day holidays, the company's domestic air tours dropped by 70% due to high airfares. Meanwhile, the railway tours to the Central region by high-quality night trains attracted many tourists.
Although summer and National Day are over, the tour to Quang Ngai to visit Ly Son Island by train offered by the company for 4.4 million VND/person is still being registered by many customers" - Mr. Thuc said.
According to Mr. Thuc, up to now, the company's business strategy has mainly been to organize road and air tours. However, with the positive situation of rail tours, the company has determined its business strategy to add rail tours to its main tours.
"With the high price of air tickets during the summer and peak holiday seasons, rail travel will have the advantage of attracting customers because the ticket price is lower than that of air tickets. The North-South railway line, with a length of thousands of kilometers, passing through many major tourist centers and beautiful coastal routes, will attract more domestic and international tourists in the near future.
However, the weakness of the railway industry is that long travel time is a big obstacle, so besides putting new trains into operation and improving service quality, the railway industry also needs to shorten train running time to attract more passengers" - Mr. Thuc shared.
