Young Vietnamese are increasingly choosing overseas tours during holidays since prices are getting lower.

Singapore is a popular destination among Vietnamese tourists (Photo: VNA)

Just two or three years ago, a tour of the Republic of Korea cost 20 million VND (857 USD) or more and the cheapest tour of Japan was 30 million VND.

Now trips to the RoK, Taiwan, Japan, and mainland China cost just a little more than to Southeast Asian countries, the manager of a travel company in HCM City said.

A five-day visit to the RoK now costs 11.5-12 million VND while a four-day trip to Japan costs 21-22 million VND.

Some travel firms even offer low-cost tours of the RoK and Taiwan at a mere 8-9 million VND.

Choosing outbound tours has become a trend in Viet Nam as local people’s incomes increase and their consumption habits are changing, said Nguyen Van Tuan, General Director of the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism.

According to preliminary statistics of the Viet Nam Tourism Association, about 6.5 million Vietnamese travelled abroad in 2016, spending about 7-8 billion USD.

Every year, about 500,000 Vietnamese went to Europe, 150,000 to Taiwan, 250,000 to Japan, 800,000 to Thailand and over 1 million to Cambodia.

Many travel companies have seen a two-digit annual growth of outbound tours in recent years. Foreign tourism promotion agencies have continuously come to Viet Nam to promote their countries and territories’ tourism.

With various policies and programmes to promote tourism, stimulate demands and provide direct support for Vietnamese travel agencies and tourists launched by foreign markets such as Japan, Thailand, Singapore and the RoK, the number of Vietnamese going abroad for travelling is on the rise.

A report by Mastercard on the future of outbound tours in Asia-Pacific projected that around 7.5 million Vietnamese will travel overseas by 2021, accounting for 9.5 percent of the country’s population.

(Source: VNA)