Passengers clear procedures to board planes in 2024 summer peak. (Photo: VietnamPlus)

Large development room for aviation, tourism sectors

At a conference themed “Aviation-tourism join hands for sustainable development” held by Nhan Dan newspaper on June 12, General Director of the Vietnam Airlines Corporation Le Hong Ha said there is still a large development room for the aviation and tourism sectors. Currently the number of international visitors to Vietnam has reached the level recorded in 2019, but that of domestic ones has not seen a recovery as expected.

The official proposed tourism enterprises take price reduction policy for night flyers, stressing the two sectors need to join hands to offer night-flight programmes.

Bamboo Airways CEO Luong Hoai Nam held that the air fare will cool down only when the aircraft fleet is expanded. Many reports by the Ministry of Transport showed worrying figures as there are only 160 airplanes in Vietnam against the 230 before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Saying that there are still 30,000-40,000 airplanes now operational in the world, Nam held that they can rent from 60-100 of them immediately if they offer higher rentals. “It will take up to 5 years to build a hotel, but only 15 days to rent planes,” the official pointed out.

However, he said, the currently very outdated management mechanisms make the carriers suffer bigger losses if they rent more planes, suggesting a dynamic amendment for the mechanisms to make it possible to reduce the air fare.

Hoang Nhan Chinh, Head of the Secretariat of the Tourism Advisory Board, said the air fare hike harms not only the aviation and tourism sectors but also many other economic fields, especially the livelihood of many people. He held that if the air fare is reduced “only by a little”, it can make many Vietnamese prefer domestic tours to outbound ones, and this can stimulate domestic tourism.

Shared benefits, responsibilities

As for tourism firms, Sale Manager of the Tourism Unit of the Sun Group Luong Thi Hoang Lan said the absence of a linkage between localities and tourism and aviation sectors does not only reduce the competitiveness of domestic destinations but also adversely affect the benefits of all the sides, thus indirectly slow down the development of the national economic growth.

To reduce air fare and help stimulate demand in the tourism sector, representatives of the aviation and tourism sectors proposed the government to work out support programmes for aviation companies, including the reduction of environment protection tax, the reduction of bank loan interest, and the removal of price cap./.