Differentiated travel trends
This summer, Ms. Thanh Nhan (32 years old, Hanoi) plans to take her whole family to the beach after a long period of busy work. However, when searching online for air tickets, she was "shocked" to see that the round-trip ticket price from Hanoi to Da Nang in June-July ranged from 3.2-3.7 million VND/person. Ticket prices to Nha Trang and Phu Quoc also ranged from 4.5-5.5 million VND/person, especially higher on weekends.
My family has 4 people, so the airfare alone has cost about 14-20 million VND. If you add hotels, food and entertainment, the cost will increase a lot, so in the end the whole family planned to switch to going to Cat Ba or Thanh Hoa by car for savings" - Ms. Nhan shared.
Contrary to the trend of cutting costs, Ms. Thanh Huyen (41 years old, Hanoi) decided to spend about 80 million VND on a summer trip with her daughter in Japan.
Referring to travel companies, I see that mass tours cost about 30-35 million VND/person. However, my mother and I want to experience destinations according to our preferences, so we have coordinated with travel companies to hire local tour guides, with tours designed specifically for 2 people" - Ms. Huyen said.
According to records from travel businesses, this summer is witnessing a clear differentiation in tourism behavior. A group of tourists switched to nearby destinations, short-day tours or trains and buses to save costs. Meanwhile, groups with high affordability still prioritize high-class exploration, resort and personalized experience tours.
Mr. Bui Thanh Tu - Marketing Director of BestPrice Travel Company said that the number of summer tour bookings is still increasing compared to the same period last year, especially in the group of family guests and overseas visitors in August-August. However, customers currently tend to consider more carefully before finalizing tours due to sharp increases in input costs, leading to increased tour prices.
Some market records show that airfares and travel input costs have increased by about 10-20% during the peak season" - Mr. Tu said.
Travel agencies focus on serving each group of customers
Faced with market differentiation, travel businesses have also changed their product development methods to suit each customer group instead of focusing on mass tours as before.
According to Mr. Bui Thanh Tu, for groups of customers who want to save costs, businesses are currently promoting short tours of 3 days 2 nights or 4 days 3 nights with itinerary close to: Ha Long, Cat Ba, Sam Son... at early morning or late evening flight times to reduce tour prices.
Businesses also increase air ticket - hotel combo, free tours and near-border routes such as: Thailand, Singapore - Malaysia, China so that customers can easily control their budgets compared to long journeys. Meanwhile, for groups of customers with higher experience needs, products are designed in the direction of resorts combined with local exploration, private tours for small groups, "healing" tours, high-class resorts or nature - cultural journeys.
In the high-end experience segment, Vietravel is developing a new generation cross-Vietnam product series lasting 18 days, targeting groups of customers who want to travel "slow", explore deeply and experience locally instead of just traveling by air.
