Travel agencies in the city have dropped their prices for both domestic and foreign tours to lure more customers during the last weeks of the year.

Vietravel is offering five and six-day tours to Thailand with Lufthansa for between US$324 and $334 respectively, and a six-day tour to Beijing at $399. These prices are up to $60 lower.

Fiditour's four-day tour to Singapore is now being offered at $405, down from $460 months ago.

Another tour operator, SPSC Tourism, is offering four-day tours to Beijing for only $359.

"Tour costs have reduced because airlines have cut ticket prices for the year-end low tourist season, and this comes on top of a series of fuel price cuts," Huynh Thu Dung, head of Vietravel's press office said.

Dung expected that tourists would flock to popular domestic destinations like Vung Tau, Nha Trang and Da Lat during year-end holidays, but other destinations such as Mui Ne in central Binh Thuan Province's Phan Thiet Town, 230km from HCM City, are also ideal spots for relaxation.

Prices for tours to Phan Thiet and Nha Trang offered by Vietravel will be reduced until the end of December, between VND700,000 ($41.67) and VND500,000 ($29.76) a tour, depending on the day of departure.

"Prices of tours which start on Saturdays are often higher than weekday tours," Dung said.

For only VND2 million ($119), tourists can book a four-day tour to Da Lat to enjoy the cool weather of the mountainous resort town on Christmas Eve. The price of the tour, organised by Saigontourist Co, has fallen by VND500,000 compared with a few months ago.

Saigontourist's weekly tours to Phan Thiet from now to the end of this year will drop to VND1,296,000 ($77.14) from VND1,700,000 ($101.19). The company also organises budget honeymoon tours from HCM City to Phan Thiet at only VND2,100,000 ($125) for two people for a two-day stay at three-star hotels.

(Source: Viet Nam News)