Tourists at Nha Trang beach in the central province of Khánh Hòa, which is expected to be very popular during the upcoming summer holiday season. — VNA/VNS Photo

HCM CITY — Travel firms are developing a range of outbound and domestic tours and offering attractive promotions to boost domestic travel during the upcoming summer travel season, starting in early June.

Saigontourist offers nearly 360 outbound and domestic tours and nearly 50 per cent discounts in tour prices for domestic tours that depart from HCM City during the summer holiday, the busiest domestic travel season.

Tours travelling to beach destinations such as Phú Quốc and Nam Du islands and central coastal cities of Nha Trang and Quy Nhơn are also sold with attractive discount prices.

Vietravel also offers discounts for advanced holiday season bookings for domestic and overseas tours.

Soaring airline ticket prices have led to an increase in domestic tour prices, making domestic tours less attractive as travellers opt for overseas tours, according to travel firms.

Therefore, travel firms and tour operators have developed more road, river and train tours to cut costs during the summer season.

Phạm Anh Vũ, marketing director of the Viet Media Travel Corporation, said luxury train travel from HCM City to popular coastal destinations such as Phan Thiết, Ninh Thuận, Nha Trang, Quy Nhơn and Đà Nẵng or express boat travel from HCM City to Côn Đảo island might have their prices cut by 20-40 per cent compared to air travel.

Nguyễn Ngọc Tấn, general director of Saco Travel, said that soaring airline ticket prices have significantly impacted travelling among domestic tourists who opt to take road trips or railway trips instead of air trips to save costs.

Tours to central coastal cities of Nha Trang and Phan Thiết are expected to be very popular during the summer holiday among travellers from HCM City.

Besides individual travel, tour operators expect growth in Meeting, Incentives, Conferencing and Exhibition (MICE) tours during the summer season when companies usually organise incentive travel to increase loyalty between companies and their staff or company partners. — VNS