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Vietnam on rails: rail travel is booming while airfares are rising!
Discover the development of transport in Vietnam: Rising airfares and the trend towards train and bus travel offer new experiences.
Vietnam on rails: rail travel is booming while airfares are rising!
More and more tourists in Vietnam are choosing road and rail routes to reduce their travel costs while gaining unique experiences. Loud Vietnam.vn Airfares on domestic routes have increased in recent years, particularly during peak seasons, holidays such as Chinese New Year or the summer months. For example, plane tickets to popular destinations such as Nha Trang and Con Dao in June can cost between VND3 and VND5 million one way. These high prices, combined with the fact that low-cost airlines often face delays and changes, lead many tourists to switch to buses, private cars and trains for a better travel experience.
The airlines' pricing policy also affects the choice of travel means. Cheap flight tickets are often only available at inconvenient times, while travel times and offers on buses and trains are often more attractive. For a round trip from Hanoi to Da Nang or Ho Chi Minh City, travelers will need to budget between 2 and 4 million VND. Demand for rail travel is expected to continue to rise in 2024, particularly among young families and government employees, which will have a positive impact on tourism figures.
Expansion of the transport network
However, there are still challenges, particularly in the rail and road networks. Long travel times, such as the approximately 12 hours on north-south routes, are still a problem. However, the Vietnamese state has commissioned plans to advance these developments. Investments for the Bien Hoa – Vung Tau expressway project were increased from VND 17,837 billion to VND 21,551 billion. The planned Quy Nhon – Pleiku expressway project is also intended not only to improve traffic, but also covers a stretch of 125 km with four lanes and a design speed of 100 km/h.
The international comparison
In an international context, a study by Greenpeace shows that ticket prices for train journeys and flights on 112 routes in Europe often favor aviation. In 71% of cases, the train was more expensive than the corresponding flight connections. Of 31 connections with starting or ending points in Germany, it turned out that the train is more expensive than flights in half of the cases. This creates a debate about whether airlines will have to pay higher fees and taxes in the future, as reported SWR.
A notable discrepancy can be seen, for example, on the Barcelona - London route, where the flight starts at just 12.99 euros, but a train ticket can cost up to 384 euros - more than 30 times more expensive. While in some cases, such as on the Hamburg-Brussels or Hamburg-Munich routes, trains remain cheaper than flights, the discussion remains primarily about the need for a kerosene tax of 50 cents per liter, which could generate over 46.2 billion euros annually. These funds could be used to invest in rail infrastructure.
In summary, both domestically and internationally, transport infrastructure and pricing policies pose significant challenges for the tourism sector in Vietnam and beyond. Adapting and improving the transport network remains crucial to the growth and development of the travel industry.