Travel companies are in a race to attract customers on the occasion of International Women's Day, March 8, by means of launching attractive promotion programmes and presenting gifts. As the special event exclusive to women falls on a weekday, it is not difficult to find a good tour with attractive prices this time.
Mr Nguyen Minh Man, Director of Communications, Vietravel Company, said his company is applying an appealing promotion policy for female visitors nationwide. In southern Ho Chi Minh City, any woman booking an outbound tour will be offered a rebate of VND500,000 for each group member for tours to Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong (China), China, the Philippines and other nations. A markdown of 5 percent (excluding airfare) is applied to domestic tours. In addition, a special customer care programme is also offered to Vietravel’s VIP, gold and silver members. In the northern Hanoi City, Vietravel also carries out a promotion programme called “10 days in honour of the beauty of the world” with a direct reduction of VND300,000 for each female tourist booking outbound tours and VND150,000 for booking domestic tours, effective from March 4 to 13, 2012. In central Danang City, Vietravel also directly rebates VND300,000 for every female traveller when booking tours to Thailand, Singapore or Malaysia, departing on March 3, and two domestic tours to Ba Na and Hue, departing on March 8. Besides, Vietravel Danang will organise a lucky draw for supermarket coupons, fashion shop coupons and spa gift cards for booking customers.
Ms Doan Thanh Tra, Marketing Director of Saigontourist Corporation, said her company is offering a 10 percent rebate for all domestic tours from March 8 to May 31, 2012 (not applicable to peak travel seasons like the Hung King’s Anniversary, Hue Festival, Da Nang international firework festival, Liberation Day and May Day) to help female travellers have more opportunity for tours. Specifically, female visitors to Sa Dec City of Dong Thap province, departing from Ho Chi Minh City on March 10, 2012, will save VND145,000 (a female tourist is charged VND570,000 and a male tourist, VND715,000). Particularly, female customers will be presented with gifts for booking tours on March 8.
Not only big tour operators like Saigontourist, Vietravel, Redtour, Ben Thanh Tourist, New Star Tour and Vietran Tour, most other travel companies regard the special treatment of female customers as a community responsibility. “The markdown does not affect tour quality. This will generate more utilities that bring customers with real satisfaction. This is actually an effort of travel companies, while domestic and international economies are in the tough time,” said Mr Luong Duy Ngan, Director of New Star Tour.
Mr Pham Tien Dung, Director of Golden Tour International Convention Centre, said, despite promotion programmes, the number of tourists is lower than in previous years because the International Women’s Day does not fall on weekend. To date, Golden Tour has 10 tours for March 8 event. Sagontourist, Vietravel and Fiditour report tourists rising 20 percent from a year ago.
According to tour operators, domestic places of interest during the March 8 event are Hue, Hoi An, Danang, Nha Trang, Da Lat, Phan Thiet, Ha Long, Cat Ba, Bai Dinh and Yen Tu. Outbound tours primarily depart for Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and China. Recent turmoil in Thailand, however, causes many Vietnamese tourists to shy away.
According to tour operators, female tourists need certain knowledge and information of destinations before booking. Besides, they should not pay too much attention to tour prices and promotion opportunities because service quality, comfort and convenience are decisive for an ideal vacation.
Thu Huyen
Vietnamese
