Vietnam travel agencies, travel service, transport, meal and entertainment service providers have been told to join forces for the sake of the development of Vietnam’s tourism

Replying to the accusation of travel firms about the difficulties in booking railway tickets, Phung Thi Ly Ha, Deputy Head of the Hanoi Railway Station, said that in this case, it is the travel firms which make troubles to themselves.

The problem is that Vietnam travel companies themselves competed fiercely with each other. A lot of travel firms book tickets in big quantities, which forced Ha and her officers to make big efforts to arrange enough tickets. Meanwhile, they finally realized that there were only few groups of travelers.

In many cases, Ha said, travel firms booked tickets without any plan informed in advance.

“We do not have accurate information about the number of travelers. We just guess the figures after considering the figures of previous years,” Ha said.

Meanwhile, reasoning difficulties relating to the fuel price increases and the exchange rate fluctuations, air carriers have called on involved parties to sit together to discuss the solutions for cooperation.

Hoang Thanh Quy, a senior executive of Vietnam Airlines said that instead of blaming each other, involved parties should spend time discussing how to cooperate in the most effective way, stressing that the parties need to join forces and only symbiosis will help all survive and develop.

The reports submitted by the north, central and southern offices of the air carrier show that the total number of seats for Tet flights is about 25,000, which will be taken from December 2011 to mid February 2012. Quy said that Vietnam Airlines is still offering air tickets with preferential rates for travel firms.