“One of the great joys of life is riding a scooter through Vietnam- a flowing, gorgeous thing.”
Anthony Bourdain (American Celebrity Chef, Author & Travel Documentarian) wrote those words, but sadly, Vietnam, one of Southeast Asia’s most beloved tourist destinations, is currently grappling with a tourism crisis fueled by skyrocketing fuel prices.
We all know that fuel supply crises have been triggered by recent Middle East conflicts that are impacting countries globally. Due to this, there is a shortage plus inflation in cost, particularly jet fuel, which has forced local Vietnamese airlines to cut 23 domestic flights per week starting from April 2026, pushing up airfares and transportation costs, forcing travelers to use road transportation that is already very congested especially in major cities like Hanoi & Ho Chi Minh City.
And this is not where the crisis stops. While the government and tourism authorities are planning long-term solutions, the economic impact is not the only challenge local travel businesses of Vietnam have to deal with. Here is exactly what the crisis looks like on the ground:
Challenges Travel Businesses of Vietnam Might Face in Upcoming Months of 2026
- Ground Transportation will be Slower & Expensive: Due to operational disruptions caused by fuel prices fluctuations & flight cuts, the strain on ground transportation across Vietnam is going to increase, making it more slower & expensive, which may increase tour costs & force travel businesses to increase selling price to maintain profitability.
- Intercity Planning Issue: Intercity travel planning may become significantly more complex due to limited vehicle availability & transport delays. With many local transportation services adding surcharges, & reducing daily trips, travel businesses might have to deal with clubbed itinerary adjustments, longer travel time and costlier circuits.
- Risk of Reduced Availability: Many Vietnam well-known activities are fuel-dependent operations like Ha Long Bay cruises, Mekong Delta boat tours, & motorbike tours across Central Vietnam. Higher operating costs for such experiences potentially lead to reduced frequency, higher prices, & tighter profit margins for operators.
- Impossible Fixed Supplier Prices: Due to extreme cost volatility faced by Vietnam’s transport & logistics sector, many local suppliers have shortened the validity of their price quotations. For travel businesses handling multiple suppliers, this means uncertainty on their agreed prices, making accurate package costing very complex in upcoming months.
- Less Bookings, More Cancellations: Many travel businesses have already started dealing with customers who are delaying booking, downsizing groups, and making cancellations. As the crisis grows, in long-haul travel businesses may have to deal with unsold inventory & uncertain cash flow.
- Constant Amendments In Itineraries: With multiple flight cuts, limited vehicle availability, & several suppliers continuing to revise their prices, travel businesses may be forced to make frequent amendments even in confirmed itineraries, which may stretch their operational capacity in coming months.
- Impact on Mark-Ups: As the input costs are rising rapidly, travel businesses across Vietnam are left with only little room to adjust their selling price, due to fear of making the package uncompetitive. Any markup applied on already increased base cost has a risk of losing bookings, while not applying one can lead to near-zero profits.
How Should Travel Businesses Prepare Before It Gets Harder
With so many challenges out of your control- fuel prices, congested roads, expensive local activities, shrinking margins, the only control you have is how you prepare your business before any other major challenge. You should start here:
- Build Wide & Deep Supplier Network: Don’t remain dependent on a few suppliers as prices might fluctuate massively in the coming months. For example, if your primary transport supplier in Da Nang suspends operations or surges their rates overnight, you must have 2-3 pre-vetted backup providers, to re-quote your client within hours without losing the booking or your margin.
- Negotiate Contracts: Try to negotiate & lock-in fixed rate or fuel-inclusive agreements with your suppliers, as it can protect your costing from sudden increase in your surcharges that can directly impact your margins.
- Keep Alternatives Ready: Always have a backup plan built in, as activities may get cancelled due to fuel shortage, or properties rates may increase at last-minute. The more alternatives ready, faster the recovery from last-minutes disruptions.
- Reduce the gap between travel & bookings: During such a crisis, the gap between confirmed booking and actual travel time, has a risk of costing your business you get to travel date, higher the chances of supplier rate shifts, clients requesting revisions, and expensive last-minute arrangements. So push for faster client confirmations, shorten your quote validity window, and avoid negotiation with suppliers far too early without any chance of flexibility.
Trick To Have Competitive Edge: Sembark Travel CRM
Smart Travel businesses don’t just survive disruptions, they take advantage of crises.
Every ongoing or potentially long-term issue this blog describes- complex supplier coordination, volatile pricing, shrinking mark-ups, and last-minute amendments, push travel businesses into reaction mode, Sembark is designed to solve them and to give businesses a competitive edge.
Here is how Sembark Travel CRM keeps you ahead while other panic and scramble to survive:
| Issue | Without Sembark | With Sembark |
| Rising Airfares & Flight Cuts | Manually Rebuilding Itineraries every time a fare spikes overnight | Build New or Amend old Itineraries in just 60 seconds with Smart Itinerary Builder |
| Congested Roads & Rising Transportation CostsComplexity in Inter-City Coordination | A single transport change requires multiple calls & manual coordination with suppliers, increasing delays and operational stress. | With centralised suppliers’ inventory/data checking availability, making route adjustments & coordination becomes faster. |
| Supplier Price Volatility | Prices changing on daily basis with no clear record of who quoted what & when, increasing risk of errors | Supplier rates are structured in backend of Sembark Travel CRM, allowing quick quotation updates with dropdown selections & Auto-tour costing to keep pricing accurate & margins protected even in last-minute adjustments. |
| Last-Minute Cancellations | Teams scramble through emails, documents & to identify bookings and inform suppliers, manage refunds & cashflow, causing delays & errors. | In one click, update all documents, vouchers & proforma receipts. Plus manage reservations & payments from a single dashboard. |
| Shrinking Mark-ups | Rising supplier costs force businesses to reduce margins on services like transport or hotels, and without clear cost visibility, it becomes difficult to balance the overall itinerary profitably. | Calculate exact profits with Component-wise tax & Markup, which helps teams adjust margins smartly & maintain overall tour profitability. |
As Vietnam grapples with this new crisis, one thing is certain, The challenges of next few months are real, verified and quite unavoidable, making travel market largely volatile and unpredictable, and the travel businesses that will survive this crisis will be ones who were already prepared, not the ones who just waited for things to settle down.
Book Your Sembark Demo Today & See Exactly How It Fits Your Business!
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