Vietnam tour guides cash in as summer travel booms

Le Doan Ngoc Thi, director of HCMC-based Viet Information Firm, stated every tour information in his firm acquired six to eight teams of vacationers in June and July, peak months of the summer season journey season.

Every group consisted of 15 to 45 individuals and so they primarily visited coastal resort cities like Vung Tau, Phan Thiet and Nha Trang, Thi stated.

The tour guides’ month-to-month revenue throughout this summer season has ranged from VND25-30 million ($1,068-1,281) per individual, equal to pre-pandemic ranges, Thi stated.

Nguyen Xuan Dong, a contract tour information who works primarily on island excursions within the seaside city of Nha Trang, stated he was completely happy that the variety of his tour bookings elevated sharply this summer season.

“The variety of prospects reserving my excursions to Nha Trang islands reached greater than 70 p.c of pre-pandemic ranges and I used to be capable of earn a month-to-month revenue of VND30 million this summer season,” Dong stated.

Earlier than the pandemic, he would earn round VND35-40 million a month through the summer season season.

“After shedding my revenue for greater than two years due to the Covid pandemic, I really feel happy with what I’ve now and hope the tourism business will rapidly get better to pre-pandemic ranges.”

Le Thanh Duoc in HCMC has needed to work continuous over the previous two months, waking up at 2-3 a.m. to choose up prospects on the Tan Son Nhat Airport and solely returning residence at midnight.

Duoc stated most tour guides are actually paid VND500,000-700,000 a day for every group, excluding different allowances.

Representatives of some journey firms have additionally confirmed that previously two months, the month-to-month revenue of skilled tour guides was round VND25-30 million.

A consultant of Hanoi-based tour operator Hanoitourist stated the common month-to-month revenue of tour guides within the firm has exceeded pre-pandemic ranges by 15 p.c this summer season.

Nonetheless, the image stays gloomy for tour guides who focus on serving inbound vacationers because the variety of overseas guests visiting Vietnam after the March 15 reopening stays low.

Within the first seven months this yr, Vietnam acquired 733,000 overseas arrivals, simply 15 p.c of this yr’s goal.

Some tour guides who used to give attention to Chinese language and Russian markets are switching to different jobs to make ends meet as China continues to take care of its zero-Covid coverage and associated restrictions, whereas worldwide flights to Russia have been suspended because of the struggle towards Ukraine.

In keeping with the Vietnam Nationwide Administration of Tourism, there have been 31,000 licensed tour guides in Vietnam earlier than Covid-19 hit the nation in 2020, incomes month-to-month incomes of VND10-40 million.

After the pandemic hit, lots of them switched to different jobs.

Vacationer locations throughout Vietnam attracted over 23 million home vacationers within the final two months, or over two thirds of the overall quantity within the first six months of the yr.

There have been 60.8 million domestic tourists in the first half, exceeding the 60 million goal set for the entire yr.