Holiday Exodus Hits Little Saigon : * Retail: Thousands of residents have saved up to pay for trips to Vietnam and are spending less in local stores.

After anxiously waiting for more than a month to get a flight back to Vietnam, 60-year-old Do Tran Chieu heard what he wanted to hear from his travel agent last weekend.

His rough and wrinkled face broke into a wide smile when his agent at Travel World on Westminster Boulevard confirmed his plane tickets for a flight later this week to Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon.

The Garden Grove resident, who works refurbishing aircraft interiors, and his wife are flying back to a country they fled 13 years ago. The Chieus, like many Vietnamese immigrants in Orange County, are joining an increasing number of people who plan to visit relatives in Vietnam to celebrate this Lunar New Year.

The holiday celebration, called the Tet Festival, starts today but for many Vietnamese immigrants, the trek back to Vietnam started in early January.

Rather than buying expensive gifts as usual for relatives in America, Chieu says he will spend much of his savings on a monthlong visit to his aging mother and his siblings at Angiang City near Ho Chi Minh City.

“I’ll buy a few reasonably priced candies and cakes for my 10 grandchildren because the bulk of my money will go to pay for this trip,” he said.

The Tet festival, like a combination of the West’s celebration of Christmas and New Year’s Day, is marked by family reunions and gift-giving among relatives and friends. Tet is also celebrated in the Chinese and Korean communities.

The Tet Festival is usually the most lucrative season for Vietnamese shopkeepers in Orange County after the Christmas holidays. But many clothing retailers as well as hair salons said sales are off this season. For example, Anita Vo, manager of Hai’s Beauty Salon said her salon’s sales have plunged 40% since last year’s Tet.

The U.S. government is in the process of normalizing relations with Vietnam, and in the last few weeks a number of restrictions have been lifted. Vietnamese immigrants are now allowed to transfer money to relatives in their native country and a ban on travel to that country has been eased.

With more Vietnamese using their holiday budgets to buy tickets for passage to their homeland, restaurants and other merchants in the Little Saigon section of Westminster report sales that are flat or that have dropped at least 20% this holiday season. In 1987, when the U.S. Census Bureau last counted, average sales for Vietnamese-owned businesses in Orange County were $51,014.

However, travel agencies in Little Saigon have realized a dramatic increase in business, especially among agencies that provide service to Vietnam via Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore and Bangkok. Round-trip air fare is about $1,200, and one of the nation’s largest tour companies, Lindblad Travel in New York, is offering a 16-day cruise to Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang for $4,640 a person.

Vick Tran of Travel World on Westminster Boulevard said he has booked about 2,500 reservations for individual trips to Vietnam in the last three months alone. Many clients are returning for the first time since the end of the Vietnam War, he said.

A few blocks east on Bolsa Avenue, a rival travel agency, Bolsa Travelmart, said it booked nearly 1,000 clients for departures in January and February, with most travelers spending two or three weeks in Vietnam. This is up more than 50% from 1991 bookings, when the travel restrictions made the trip more expensive.

“People who couldn’t get a ticket last year are doing it this year,” said Steve Nguyen, manager of Bolsa Travelmart. “Many have booked six to eight months ahead to get a date of travel guaranteed.”

But such international trips have led to slower sales at other businesses in Little Saigon, which is concentrated along several blocks on Bolsa Avenue between Magnolia and Ward streets.

Jennifer Tran, a sales clerk at Kim Ngoc Jewelry along Bolsa Avenue, said gold jewelry priced at less than $100 was a favorite among customers until this year, she said.

“Many people are either replacing gifts of jewelry with food items or gold from Asia,” she said. “Those who visit Vietnam put off some of the gift-giving so they can buy less expensive jewelry in Vietnam and give them as gifts when they return.”

The recession has tempered this year’s celebration and gift-giving tradition, said Dr. Co Pham, president of the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce of Orange County. Many are replacing expensive gifts of French cognac and pate de foie gras, or goose liver pate, with low-cost items, such as sweet rice pudding, cookies and dried fruit, he said.

“A family normally spends at least $200 for Tet holiday gifts. Now they’ve cut this in half,” he said. “Many are saving money for their trips to Vietnam and spending whatever money is left on holiday food necessities,” such as sugared lotus seeds and coconut strips, steamed rice buns and dried watermelon seeds.

As a result, several bakeries and supermarkets are doing brisk business.

David Tran, owner of Little Saigon Supermarket, said he rang up 30% more in sales this season compared to the 1991 Tet holiday. A few blocks away, managers at the larger 99 Price Market said they’ve also seen a surge in sales in the last two weeks, helped by a large influx of Vietnamese immigrants from out of state visiting the area.

Nearby, at Van’s Bakery, where sales are also up 30% over the last Tet season, buyers are spending an average of $18 on rice cakes and dried fruit. Kristie Loi, manager of Van’s, which is part of a chain of five bakeries and tea shops in California, said that her store has been keeping 16-hour days since last week to accommodate increased demand.

Vietnamese Business The Vietnamese community in Orange County, which has the highest concentration of Vietnamese immigrants in the nation, is ringing in the lunar new year with the Tet Festival celebration beginning today. Sales at Vietnamese travel agencies and supermarkets are particularly strong this year, merchants say. A profile of Southern California businesses:

Average Annual Sales Businesses in counties with larger, more established Vietnamese communities tend to have significantly higher average sales.* Region: Avg. Sales per Company Los Angeles: $61,737 Orange: 51,014 San Diego: 40,442 Inland Empire: ** 43,764 Ventura: 26,800 County-by-County Breakdown

Vietnamese Percent With County Companies Sales Paid Employees Los Angeles 3,489 $215.40 million 21.8% Orange 3,074 $156.82 million 24.4% San Diego 837 $33.85 million 21.6% Inland Empire 263 $11.51 million 25.1% Ventura 75 $2.01 million 16.0%

* Based on 1987 figures, the latest available ** Riverside and San Bernardino counties The percentages of companies with paid employees are low because most Vietnamese businesses are sole proprietorships Source: U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce