Published:  09:18 Saturday - December 31, 2016

The HCMC Department of Tourism has said it intends to propose lifting a 50% discount cap on tours to make it possible to launch a series of programs offering steep discounts for customers to step up tour sales.

The city’s departments of tourism and industry trade will jointly hold four sales promotion programs for foreign and domestic tourists to the city, said director Bui Ta Hoang Vu of the Department of Tourism.

These promotional programs might not produce as good results as expected since the current rules of the Ministry of Industry and Trade ban discounts of more than 50%. In other countries, price discounts might reach 70-80%.

Vu said, “Discount shopping can make a tourist destination more attractive. We want to organize annual programs to provide big discounts for tourists,” he said.

Enterprises active in other sectors have also suggested removing the discount limit several times but to no avail.

HCMC is projected to welcome 5.2 million foreign tourists and 21.8 million domestic visitors this year, with total tourism sector revenue estimated to grow 9% year-on-year to VND103 trillion (US$4.53 billion).

Vietnam has attracted over 10 million international visitors this year, surging 26% over last year, according to data of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.

The five biggest source markets this year are China with 2.7 million tourists, soaring 51.4%, South Korea with 1.54 million, leaping 38.7%, Japan with 740,000, up 10.3%, the U.S. with 553,000, up 12.5%, and Taiwan with 507,000, up 15.6%.

The sector looks to see foreign visitor arrivals next year rising to 11.5 million.