Visitors at Nguyen Hue Flower Street during the Lunar New Year (Tet) festival.(Photo: VNA) Staycations and luxury leisure vacations are also popular this year, thedepartment said in a report. Short-distance itineraries to thesoutheastern region and Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, following health and safety protocols,are favoured by travellers.
Independent trips, including self-drive itineraries located near the city suchas Vung Tau, Da Lat and Phan Thiet, saw a rise in visitors during the Tet holiday.
Lai Minh Duy, general director of TST Tourist, said domestic tours could becustomised for each group or family, with socially-distanced andmask-wearing guidelines.
Many Tet tours had been delayed until the Reunification Day holidayon April 30, when COVID-19 outbreaks were expected to be contained bythat time, Duy said.
Travellers scrambled to cancel trips and get refunds for tours duringthe Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday due to COVID-19 outbreaks in lateJanuary, just a few days ahead of Tet.
Around 500 customers cancelled Tet tours worth a total of 6 billion VND (260,400USD) at leading travel firms in the city. Most of them required fullrefunds and refused to delay trips, firms said.
Travel demand during Tet was nearly at a standstill. Duringthe holiday, popular tourist and entertainment sites in the city such as DamSen Park, Suoi Tien Theme Park, Van Thanh and Binh Quoi tourist sites wereclosed to contain the spread of the virus.
Hotels in HCM City are now operating at occupancy rates of less than 10 percent,according to the department. Many hotels prepared special F&Bprogrammes and offered promotions to meet rising demand during the Tet seasonbut were then affected by the new outbreaks.
As many as 29 hotels with a total of 2,053 rooms have been approved toserve as hotel quarantine areas, and four more, with a total of more than440 rooms, are waiting for approval from city authorities./.
VNA
