"Domestic Market is the Momentum for Saigontourist to Develop"

To satisfy customers’ demand, Saigontourist has poured more investment into e-brands to serve seasonal tours, including dulichhe.com, dulichthu-dong.com, dulichtet.com and dulichkhuyenmai.com. To date, Saigontourist has expanded its operations nationwide with diversified domestic and foreign tours which depart from Hanoi, Danang and HCM City. Saigontourist has closely cooperated with more than 300 travel firms in 36 countries and territories worldwide, including France, Germany, Japan, Russia, the US, China, Spain and South Korea as well as ASEAN countries. With great efforts, we have made remarkable achievements over the past time with the annual growth of 18- 20 per cent. The company gained the gross revenue of over US$450 million per year over the past recent years. It targets a revenue of US$1 billion in 2015.

 

The company focuses on domestic and international tours to make breakthroughs in its business activities. We will pay more attention to new foreign markets and develop Premium Travel brands, besides joining community development activities.

 

Last year, Saigontourist completed a set of five-star hotel management standards. Saigontourist was the only travel firm in Vietnam to be selected for the national trademark programme in 2008. We also received a series of prizes for a prestigious travel company. This has proved the company’s firm foothold on the way to become a strong tourism name. We are very proud of our achievements and contributions to the national tourism sector.

 

Recoganising our roles in the country’s tourism sector, we have launched special campaigns named “Marketing –Quality– Efficiency –Integration”, “Trademark – Quality –Efficiency – Integration” to aim at target markets and customers.

 

So far this year, Saigontourist has carried out stimulus tourism programmes, gaining the total revenue of VND560 billion and welcoming 186,000 Vietnamese and international visitors. Between 2000 and 2009, we gained a revenue rise of 5.5 folds on-year. The company has invested in building new branches and upgrading existing ones. We are trying to sharpen our competitiveness to further integrate into the regional and world market.      

Currently, for the domestic tourism industry, Saigontourist is considered as a big trademark which has considerable influences on the Vietnamese tourism market. After a long time operating in the tourism sector, we highly appreciate the local which promises much untapped potential. More importantly, the domestic market will pave the way for us to take deeper penetration into foreign countries. Therefore, conquering the local market is our top priority.

 

Regarding the integration and development strategy, Saigontourist aims to become a strong tourism group which provides a chain of diversified, distinguished and hi-grade products. To become an international trademark, we have received strong support from Ho Chi Minh City authorities as well as local concerned agencies for buying two foreign hotels which are under construction. Besides the goal to promote the brand of Saigontourist and maximise revenue, the hotels are expected to become ideal places to introduce Ho Chi Minh City’s image and Vietnam’s image as a whole to international visitors.

 

As leader of Saigontourist and Chairman of the 35^th ASEAN-Japan Business Meeting (AJBM), what messages would you like to deliver to your partners as well as customers?

I think that it is customers that have stood by Saigontourist for over 34-years with lots of ups and downs. Customers’ confidence has helped bring success for Saigontourist so far. We are always grateful to clients and will try to provide more valuable services to them. Each award we gain shows our gratefulness to customers who believe in us and have supported us over the years.

 

We have implemented over 30 projects in Ho Chi Minh City and localities across the country.  By 2015, we will have additional 8,000 hotel rooms and more four and five-star resorts, raising the company’s total number of hotel rooms to around 14,000. Among our on-going projects, the major ones are a five-start tourism complex at Thu Thiem New Urban Area, Saigon eco-tourism conference hall, Saigon Sunbay project valued at US$550 million. Partners who are concerned wth the project can talk with us. Coming to the AJBM 35 to be held in Ho Chi Minh City, Saigontourist hopes to join hands with more partners to get access to the world market.