Saigontourist Travel Service Company served over 180,000 foreign visitors from January to September, a year-on-year pickup of more than 130%, far higher than the local tourism industry's average of 10.5%.
This is a sharp growth rate in the backdrop of the falling foreign arrivals in the country. This spectacular performance is attributable to the firm's services for cruise ships, high-end Chinese tourists, Germans and MICE (meeting, incentive, convention and exhibition) events, the company director, Vo Anh Tai, said.
"The cruise ship tourism segment has contributed a large number of customers and we are going to sign one more high-value contract with Asian ship owners," Mr. Tai told the Daily.
However, Saigontourist is not so optimistic about the impressive growth in terms of the foreign arrivals, saying its performance is still poor in general and in a number of markets in particular. "France is a market that generates high sales revenues but the number of customers from the country is small this year" Mr. Tai noted.
After many surveys, the company realized that next year French leisure tourists would prefer destinations that feature culture, history and resorts with moderate prices. Meanwhile, visitors from Russia and Germany are fond of high-class resorts.
It also found that Vietnam remained attractive to MICE clients thanks to competitive products and services, exotic cultural and historical traits, and social and political stability.
Saigontourist, the country's biggest travel firm by visitor numbers, has served multiple international cruise ships to the country so far. From November 2012 to March next year alone, it expects about 80,000 foreign travelers from cruise line Star Cruises to come.