The travel demand during Tet is often higher than normal days at the end of the year. However, according to recent surveys, people’s need to buy and book tickets for Tet trips has not shown any signs of a sudden increase.

Visitors at Da Nang International Airport

At the Da Nang Coach Station, many passenger transport vehicles travelling from/to/through Da Nang are always ready to serve passengers.

Meanwhile, the Da Nang Transportation and Bus Station Management JSC is developing a plan to serve the New Year and Lunar New Year 2024, but it forecasts that passenger travel demand on the occasions is not too stressful.  However, the unit still prepares extra vehicles for backup.

Mr. Doan Kim Tuan, Head of the Passenger Transport Team at the Da Nang Railway Station, said that although rail fares only increase by 1-4% depending on the route and type of trains in the peak time, and even decrease by 1-8% compared to 2022 in the off-peak season, there is not much demand for booking and buying train tickets because Tet comes late.

Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thuy Dung, who hails from Ninh Binh and is working in Da Nang, shared that every year, booking train tickets for Tet is very difficult, sometimes you have to wait overnight. However, it only takes a few minutes to book online tickets.

Mr. Thai Van Truyen, General Director of the Saigon Railway Transport JSC, informed that since October 20, over 100,000 train tickets have been sold during the ticket sales programme for the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday which will fall from February 8 - 14, 2024.

Specifically, before Tet, train tickets are still available on all routes, including from February 2, 2024 and earlier and from February 7 - 9, 2024. Between February 3 and 6, 2024 (24^th - 27^th days of the 12^th lunar month), tickets for soft and extra seats are available.

After Tet, there are still many tickets left for all days. The railway sector is applying many preferential policies to support train passengers such as discounts for social policy beneficiaries, trade unions, passengers with customer cards.

Also, 3% discount on ticket prices is offering for trains departing from HCMC on February 8, 2024 and traveling 1,000km or more. Meanwhile, 5% discount on return tickets is being applied for passengers who buy round-trip tickets, especially students receiving a 10-20% discount on ticket prices depending on days of travel.

For air transport, the demand for Tet tickets seems to be more vibrant, but with current high ticket prices, many customers are still hesitant to consider whether to travel by plane or take the train or sleeper bus.

On online ticket sales websites, round-trip airfares for Lunar New Year 2024 on some air routes are being sold at VND4.5-10 million per ticket depending on the airline, flight time and flight date (including tax and fees).

For example, the one-way airline ticket for the Da Nang-Ha Noi route on the 2^nd day of Tet (February 11, 2024operated by VietJet Air is VND3,310,800; Vietravel Airlines VND3,223,280/; Bamboo Airways VND5,102,000 and Vietnam Airlines VND4,975,000.

Mr. Thai Ba Huan, a resident of Ha Noi, said that, with such a ticket price, on average, his family of 4 returning home from Da Nang to celebrate Tet will spend more than VND20 million in airfares.

This is a large amount of money in such a difficult economic year, so he will have to recalculate means of transportation.

It is known that in addition to travelling by plane, train, and bus, people tend to return home to celebrate Tet by personal car, and car-sharing model is also being chosen by many people.

According to the Viet Nam Aviation Administration, to serve the travel needs of passengers during Tet 2024, airlines plan to provide approximately 5.5 million seats on domestic flights, an increase of 4% compared to Tet 2023, and approximately 2.1 million seats on international flights, a rise of 36.8%.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Transport has just issued a work plan to well serve the people's travel needs, ensuring traffic order and safety during the New Year, Lunar New Year and spring holidays.

Reporting by THANH LAN - Translating by M.DUNG