Travel Agents - Don't Get Burned in VietNam!

Travel Agents are usually the people who get it in the neck when a tour goes wrong. Clients headed for VietNam, and Cambodia and Thailand to a lesser extent, should expect to be faced with increasing menu prices and reduced tour offerings. Inflation is rampant over here, topping 21% in the month of 2008 April. The price of rice doubled over one weekend recently. Tour operators are finding the ‘deals’ they cut with hotels are being dishonoured, which doesn’t make for an enjoyable visit. This is understandable as hotels discount rooms to tour ops who then turn around and sell the rooms for over the hotels rack rate. Given that hotel rooms are rented by the room and space sold by the bed by tour operators you can see just how much the T.O.s are profiting. Even the devalued dollar is less welcomed than previously was the case. Note that Australian dollars, British pounds as well as the Euro continue to be easily exchanged in the Indochina region.