Outbound tour prices rise on dong devaluation

Travel agencies hiked the price of outbound tours Monday following the dong’s 9.3 percent devaluation last week.

Ben Thanh Travel Company said it will increase the rates for most overseas tours by 5-7 percent based on the foreign exchange rates at major banks.

However, it will not collect the difference for tours already booked.

Lua Viet Tourist Company, which is unable to buy dollars from banks and has to buy on the black market at VND21,700, has increased the prices of all outbound tours by 10 percent.

Vietravel and TST Tourist said they preferred to absorb the loss to retain customer goodwill in this highly price-sensitive environment.

Many major travel agencies apply a “negotiated” foreign exchange rate by taking the average of the official and black-market rates.

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