Russian Travel Digest asked some questions Mr. Le Thanh Dung, Vietnam Airlines General Manager Russia and CIS, about Russian Travel Market to find out more about their plans and strategy for the coming year.

Russian Travel Digest asked some questions Mr. Le Thanh Dung, Vietnam Airlines General Manager Russia and CIS, about Russian Travel Market to find out more about their plans and strategy for the coming year.

Vietnam Airlines will move its Moscow operations from Domodedovo to Sheremetyevo airport starting July 2, Asia Travel Tips informs.  The move to Sheremetyevo International Airport will facilitate Vietnam Airlines’ cooperation and partnership with Russia’s major carrier Aeroflot, as the two airlines target to begin codesharing on domestic routes in Vietnam and Russia, and expand their cooperation across several areas of the business. The airline will move its entire operations without any interruption to flights. 

Over the first two months of 2019 Russian tourist flow to Vietnam increased by 4%. Experts see in the recent initiative of Vietnam Airlines the great opportunities for growth in demand among regional tourists.  According to Vietnamese National Tourism Administration (VNAT), over the first 2 months of 2019 almost 147,000 Russian arrivals were recorded in the country. This is 4% more than in the same period of 2018.

Vietnam is in the TOP-10 foreign countries which are visited by Russian tourists. According to the annually published data of Rosstat (the Federal State Statistics Service) and Rostourism, as well as the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam, the country was visited by

In 2018 a record number of Russian tourists visited Vietnam: more than 600 thousand people. However, the dynamics of growth in tourist flow from the Russian Federation showed a clear slowdown, the last months of the year even showed a decline 

Viet Nam, the Host Country of the 38th ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) to be held in Ha Long, is all ready to make a lasting impression on its 1500 delegates. They comprise of ministerial, NTO, official meeting delegates, as well as TRAVEX suppliers from across all 10 ASEAN member states, international buyers and media pools.

“Nowadays the experts are noting a robust growth in demand by about 10% for winter holidays in all destinations,” the executive director of ATOR, Maya Lomidze said. Data from ATOR Analytical Service allows us to talk about the increased demand for winter destinations. Totally, the growth in demand for winter tours in all areas (domestic and outbound) currently exceeds by 10–15% the last year’s indicators.

“From November 28, S7 Airlines is to launch direct regular flights from Irkutsk to Cam Ranh (Vietnam),” the carrier’s press service reports. The flights from Irkutsk airport will be operated on Wednesdays and Saturdays. "The flight departs from Irkutsk at 21:10 and lands at Cam Ranh airport at 3:15 of local time. The return flight departs on Thursdays and Sundays at 4:30 and arrives to Irkutsk airport at 12:20," the message said. It is noted, that the flights to Vietnam will be operated by Airbus A320neo, as well as by Boeing 737 MAX, which will enter the S7 fleet this autumn. The company informed that Vietnam is a new destination for S7 airline, the route is designed for tourists.

According to tour operators, more often the Russians book Vietnam for New Year holidays, although a number of companies have applications for the spring of 2019. "April 2019 – it is the longest date when agents are now booking tours, but this is more likely an exception.

As the tour operators say, who have their own charter programs to Vietnam, despite fluctuations of the exchange rate in August-September, the destination shows good volumes and depth of sales during early booking program for upcoming winter season.

Vietnam demonstrates an increase of demand during the early booking period of the winter season 2018 - 2019. The leaders are the tours for New Year holidays, Nha Trang and the island of Fukuok, charters for which two tour operators already have launched. According to the participants of the tour operator market, Vietnam is one of the most steadily selling destinations on the Russian market.

Ho Tram, Vietnam, 10 October 2018 - Meliá Hotels International, one of the world’s largest hotel companies, announced its first property in Ho Tram is expected to open in 2019, which marks the fourth operating hotel under the Meliá Hotels & Resorts brand in Vietnam. Along with the brand’s exponential growth in Vietnam with the paradise resort Meliá Danang

According to the results of the first half of 2018, the Russian tourist flow to Vietnam grew by 8%. Tour operators are hoping for good sales till the end of the second half of the summer. Large players are already expanding flight programs for the winter and are launching new charters to the island of Fukuok, which was extremely successful last year.

According to the Central Statistical Office, the international tourist flow to Vietnam for the first 5 months of this year amounted more than 6.7 million people, which is 27.6% more in comparison with the same period of 2017. “Such figures are fixed for the first time”, - reports the Ministry of Tourism of the country.

On May 30 the first regular flight on the route Moscow-Nha Trang (Vietnam) was performed by AZUR airline. Boeing 767-300 airplane of the company, with the capacity of 336 passengers took off to Nyachang full loaded. The duration of the flight is about 10 hours. It is planned that from May 30 till June 13, 2018 the flights on this direction will be performed once a week - on Wednesdays. In future time, from June 18 to October 24 the flights on the route Moscow-Nha Trang will be carried out twice a week - on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Vietnam entered into the TOP-10 of out coming markets in Russia in 2017. The annual increase of the number of Russian tourists amounted 32.3%. The tour operators have expanded their programs to the resorts of this country in winter. The experts note high demand for Vietnam among the Russian tourists in regions of the country. According to official statistics, the tourists flow from Russia to Vietnam in 2017 (excluding the New Year dates) increased by 32.3% in comparison with the results of 2016. Thus, in this year 574 thousand Russian tourists came to Vietnam.

The number of Russian tourists at Nha Trang resort in Vietnam has almost doubled from January till October 2017, up to 360 thousand people”, - reported portal vnexpress with reference to the tourism department of Khanh Hoa Province. "During the first 10 months of the year 360 thousand Russian tourists came to Nha Trang, which is 180% more than in the same period a year earlier", - the report said. In general, following the results of 2017, Vietnam will host 13 million foreign tourists, this is a record figure for the country. Nha Trang city is the capital of Khanh Hoa province in central Vietnam. One of the most popular seaside resorts among foreign tourists.

“The number of tourist arrivals from Russia to Vietnam for 10 months of 2017 increased by 38.3% against the same period of the last year - up to 457.3 thousand people”, - said the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR), citing the Vietnamese National Tourism Authority. Over the past year 434,000 tourists from Russia visited Vietnam. Thus, the result for the 10 months of 2017 already exceeds the figures of entire 2016 year.

Tour operator Coral Travel announced about launching of a direct charter program to Fukuok island (Vietnam) since the end of October from Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Irkutsk. Sales of this direction have already begun. As reported in the company, direct charter flights from Moscow will start on October 23, from Ekaterinburg - on October 24, from Novosibirsk - on December 25 and from Irkutsk - on December 30.