Budget on the road in Vietnam

HO CHI MINH CITY – Budget Rent A Car arrives in Vietnam today.

Budget vehicles, complete with chauffeurs, will be made available from hotels and Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat Airport.

Demand for hire care is being fuelled by booming overseas arrivals. Travellers to Vietnam surpassed 2.2 million in the first half of 2008 — the most ever in a six-month time frame, according to Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) statistics.

“We are confident there is substantial demand for high quality car rental here,” said Dan Cohen, Budget Vietnam’s general manager.

“Google receives the key phrase ‘car rental Vietnam’ at least 250 times per day.”

With its entry into Vietnam, Budget becomes the country’s first international standard car rental service. To maximise its chances of success, it strategically teamed with The Gannon Group, one of the country’s leading foreign firms.

On the ground since the lifting of the trade embargo in 1994, Gannon has paved the way for a host of big-name brands, including L’Oreal, Nestle and, most recently, Budweiser.

Gannon owns the franchise rights for Budget Vietnam.

Budget will provide each customer in Vietnam with a well-trained native driver who will function as a traveling concierge, with strong English-language skills and knowledge of the immediate region.

“Our drivers will get you where you need to go, safely and efficiently, but they will also have the capacity to accommodate any type of request,” said Cohen. “From making a dinner reservation to providing the scoop on local promos and events, these guys know it all and can handle it all.”

Cars, which can be booked online, are priced from US$69 to US$249 per day and come equipped with amenities such as mobile phone, international newspapers and magazines, chilled water and towels and 24-hour customer-service support.

The decision to make a driver/travelling concierge part and parcel of the Vietnam car-rental experience was prompted by a combination of factors, headed by the rarity of foreign drivers here and the growing market for a middle ground between guided tours and going it totally alone.

“We’re positioning the traveling concierge services as an alternative to traditional package tours. We call it travel for grown-ups,” Cohen explained.

“People want to visit Vietnam; the numbers say as much. But they don’t necessarily want a tour guide with them every second — nor do they want to navigate from the airport to their hotel, or from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay, on their own. This is a middle ground where we see extraordinary market potential.”

Walter Blocker, Gannon’s CEO, said that hotels currently bore much of the travel burden, picking up guests at the airport and hiring drivers with private cars for excursions ranging from a few hours to 10 days.

“Sometimes the hotel absorbs this cost, as with airport pick-up, and other times they pass it on to the guests — with longer trips,” he said.

“Either way, we believe the guest is better served by the service Budget offers — in terms of convenience