HCM City (VNA) -𓆉 The Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Association has kicked off the domestic tourism promotion programme, with the participation of Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet Air, Jetstar Pacific and Sai Gon Railway Company, to offer attractive discounts for ticket fares.

For the first time, Sai Gon Railway Company participated in the programme with the first tour launched early this month, said Nguyen Thi Khanh, deputy chairwoman of the HCM City Tourism Association. The programme, which aims to boost domestic tourism growth, offers competitive tour packages with discount prices of 20-40 percent, Khanh said. Vietnam Airlines pledged to give incentive policies for travel agents for sales fares, hold seats, and booking, said Ngo Thi Thu Hien, general manager of sales and promotion at Vietnam Airlines office in the city. Vietnam Airlines will offer discount fares from 40-70 percent for domestic tours under the programme, Hien said. It will work closely with travel agents to expand routes with preferential prices, she said. From only two major routes in 2009, including HCM City-Hanoi and HCM City-Da Nang, Vietnam Airlines has designed many domestic flights for the promotion programme such as Nha Trang, Da Lat, Phu Quoc, Phu Yen, Buon Me Thuot, and Pleiku. Representatives of Vietjet and Jetstar Pacific also committed to the lowest prices for the programme along with favourable conditions on bookings and time of flights. Around 130,000 tickets for stimulus tour packages were sold this year compared to more than 49,000 tickets last year, Khanh said. The result of the stimulus programme was still modest compared to the figure of more than 35 million domestic tourists, she said. Tran Thi Viet Huong, director of marketing department of Vietravel, said the programme had contributed to the growth of domestic tours. Competitive prices were key factors for holiday makers to choose a tour, Huong said. Tour packages with competitive prices accounted for 70-80 percent of the company's sales in some domestic tour routes, she said.-VNA