The swine flu pandemic, a global economic downturn, one of Asia’s lowest retention rates and inflationary pressure on tourism products and services all converged to batter Vietnam’s tourism industry this year.
But while international arrivals fell by 19 percent across the board during the first half of 2009, arrivals from Sweden and Norway have surged by 30 percent and 31 percent respectively since 2007.
Hoping to tap into one of the few bright spots for the industry over the last 12 months, three locally-based tour operators will start a weekly charter flight from Sweden to Ho Chi Minh City, beginning in December.
Bui Viet Thuy Tien, director of travel firm Asian Trails Co., Ltd, one of the three tour operators partnering up on the flights, told The Saigon Times Daily on Tuesday the first flight will arrive at the city’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport on December 2.
An Airbus 330 aircraft will carry international tourists from the Scandinavian country to HCMC every Wednesday until March next year, she said.
“This is a good deal at this time, as the number of international arrivals to Vietnam is declining,” she said.
Tien said the tourists, mostly from Sweden, Norway and Denmark, would take two-week tours across the country.
Asian Trails would receive 160 to 170 foreign guests each week, or half the passengers of each flight, while the two other operators would serve the remaining tourists, Tien said.
The HCMC-based travel firm forecast the number clients they would receive in August and September will plunge by 30 to 40 percent over the same period last year.
“Some foreign partners have said the number of bookings for Vietnam is increasing but we have yet to receive a good signal about any recovery in tourist arrivals,” Tien said.
International arrivals to Vietnam in the first half of 2009 fell 19 percent over the same period last year to 1.89 million arrivals.
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