Int’l tour operators club together
14:43' 21/12/2007 (GMT+7)

Ten international tour operators in HCMC have established the Vietnam Inbound Tour Operator Club with an aim to promote professionalism in Vietnam's tourism industry and jointly settle outstanding problems of the sector, the club's vice president said.

 

The club members include famous international tour operators in HCMC and Vietnam, such as Indochina Services Vietnam, Focus Asia, Asian Trails, Deithelm Travel, Phoenix Vietnam, and Trails of Indochina. These tour operators hold strong power in the inbound sector of Vietnam's travel industry.

 

The tour operators are sitting together to make "a common voice in the travel industry", said the club's vice president Bui Viet Thuy Tien, who is also director of Asian Trails.

She said the hotel room rates continuing to rocket was one of the main troubles for tour operators, "so the club is seeking to jointly resolve the trouble."

It will share information regarding the travel industry among one another, conduct surveys and analyses, and set out schemes to work with local authorities on relevant issues.

"We are also planning to make researches and analyses, and working closely with the tourism authorities of Vietnam," Tien said.

Earlier this year, some international tour operators have sat back together to talk some hotels into cutting room rates that had seen excessive rise. After the talk, some of the hotels have agreed to keep the contract price unchanged.

She said that the club's members would meet every month to identify the problem that need to be resolved. VITO is now calling more local and foreign tour operators to join the club.

"We will admit more members who are tour operators in the inbound sector," she said.

In late November, the HCMC Tourism Association launched the HCMC Society of Travel Agents, with an aim to promote cooperation among tour operators and improve services.

The society has attracted 70 local companies in the travel sector and related sectors with the first activities being to jointly build new tourism products, train tour guides, and bolster tourism promotion.

(Source: SGT)