Nguyen Thi Minh Yen, Director of Vietnam Airlines’ Southern Regional Office, said the airline had decided to give the discounts after the success of the “Impressive Vietnam” promotion program last year. The ten-month program will be divided into several periods.

“There are familiar faces that offered packaged prices to local travelers last year. We will consider the program’s expansion to other companies if we receive requests from the tourism sector,” she said.

Tran The Dung, Deputy Director of the Young Generation Travel Company, said that the new prices for promotional air tickets were priced well, compared to the promotion last year. As usual, the promotional tickets are to be used for groups of at least 10 travelers.

Last year, the airline gave discounts of up to 60% to tour operators.

According to Dung, under “Impressive Vietnam” program last year, tour operators were able to discount package tours to attractions located in Central and Northern Vietnam by 30 to 35%.

The Young Generation Travel Company has launched some promotion tours, such as the five-day tour to Danang- Hoi An-My Son-Ba Na-Hue-Phong Nha, which costs nearly VND3.7 million per tourist. They also began selling tickets to Hanoi-Halong-Trang An-Bai Dinh Pagoda-Sapa for VND5.84 million, and a four-day tour to visit -Halong-Trang An-Bai Dinh Pagoda for VND4.23 million.

According to a Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) report, the cooperation between the airline and tourism sectors encouraged more locals to travel last year.

Under the “Impressive Vietnam” program, over 21,000 local people nationwide received discount air tickets from Vietnam Airlines to travel last year.

Based on this positive result, representatives of VNAT have spoken with Vietnam Airlines about developing new programs for local travelers.

Along with this program, VNAT and the Ministry of Industry and Trade have begun joint promotion programs, aimed to target both local and international guests at various venues around the country. The VNAT will announce the details of the program soon.

About 25 million local people traveled last year, up 20% compared to the previous year. VNAT expect approximately 27 to 28 million local people to travel throughout Vietnam this year.