Most travel agents confirm that tours for the Tet (Lunar New Year) festival have been fully booked due to the long Tet holiday.

The tourism market this year has shown signs of resurgence, with bookings for Tet tours increasing from 15 to 30 percent against last year, prompting travel agents to announce that they have stopped accepting bookings for tours.

According to Duong Mai Lan, head of the research and development department of Viettravel Hanoi company, the number of tourists booking through the agent’s branches reached 11,000, a year-on-year increase of 30-35 percent.

After the government announced that this Tet would be a nine-day holiday, domestic ticket sales increased 10 percent, filling up both domestic and outbound tours, she said.

The Saigon Travel Service Company (Saigontourist) has received more than 11,000 holiday makers, of which outbound tours increased from 15 to 25 percent over 2009 and tours have been fully booked since February 8 while the Vietran company stopped booking a month ago.

This year, people seem to be favouring China , Japan , Thailand , Cambodia , Singapore , and Malaysia for outbound tours while the most popular destinations in Vietnam are northern sites, where activities to celebrate the 1,000 anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi are concentrated, as well as beautiful beaches as Nha Trang, Phan Thiet, Phu Quoc, Vung Tau or traditional festivals across the coutry./.