Indochina Services Travel Group, Australia-based Travel Indochina, Phoenix Voyages Groups and Destination Asia are four of the tour operators who have voiced their concerns.The operators said leading properties had failed to honour existing contracts. They warned if hoteliers decided to go through with the strategy, it would be
detrimental to Vietnam’s entire tourism industry.
Tour operators added that rate increases would force up tour prices in Vietnam and damage the destination’s reputation and capacity to compete with other regional countries.However, Vietnam’s hoteliers are defending their right to introduce steep rate increases next season, claiming tour operators should understand it is in line with strong demand from business and leisure travel.They said hotels rooms had been sold under actual value for quite some time andincreases were in line with market trends.
Others said they had invested heavily to upgrade facilities and therefore it was normal to see hotels increase their rates.