22 January 2009

Vietnam's discount campaign labelled a disaster

HO CHI MINH CITY Ã¢â¬' Leading destination management company Asian Trails has described as a Ã¢â¬Åâœpublic relations disasterÃ¢â¬~ the Vietnam National Administration of TourismÃ¢â¬â¢s (VNAT) latest promotion campaign offering discounts at hotels and tours of between 30 and 50 percent.

The campaign was heavily promoted at last weekÃ¢â¬â¢s Asean Tourism Forum in Hanoi where banners and brochures flagged the huge discounts.

Asian Trails general manager for Vietnam Claudio Kellenberger said the campaign had been announced to the media in Southeast Asia Ã¢â¬Åâœbut not to the five leading inbound agents in VietnamÃ¢â¬~.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœWe called hotels and tour agents just before ATF but they knew nothing about these discounts.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœI was approached by a number of clients asking for the discounts and I had to do a lot of explaining that it just wasnÃ¢â¬â¢t happening. Those sorts of discounts are totally unrealistic. We have no idea where the 30-50 percent figures came from.Ã¢â¬~

Kellenberger said it was little use discounting 30 percent for one month. It made more sense to limit any increases in rates to no more than 5-10 percent over the whole of 2010.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœThatÃ¢â¬â¢s much more important for me if IÃ¢â¬â¢m going to attract my clients.Ã¢â¬~

Kellenberger said the biggest challenges for Vietnam were human resources and domestic air access.

Young tour guides, he said, were hard to get because they were not well paid and the clever ones took themselves off to university to learn a language and sought better-paid opportunities in other industries.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœWe have raised our (local) salaries by up to 25 percent, there is no cheap labour anymore in the tourism sector,Ã¢â¬~ said Kellenberger.

Domestic air access to move visitors around the country was a major headache, he said. Vietnam Airlines had 70 percent of the domestic market and flew full planes.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœI can never rely on more than 30 percent of the seats I need being available on an internal Vietnam Airlines flight,Ã¢â¬~ Kellenberger added.