HCM City’s tourism sector works to attract more visitors

Foreign visitors at the Central Post Office, a famous tourist destination of HCM City. Photo dangcongsan.vn

HCM CITY — The City Department of Tourism has collaborated with the Hồ Chí Minh City Tourism Association and the national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines in rolling out a programme, aiming to entice tourists to use night flights and accommodation establishments in the southern metropolis.

Accordingly, Vietnam Airlines has encouraged accommodation establishments to participate in building product packages that combine air tickets on some routes with reasonable prices and flights departing between 21:00 and 6:00 the next day, and free hotel rooms for the first night or an 80 per cent discount. Other establishments have offered a 20-100 per cent reduction of the price for the first night and up to 60 per cent of the listed price for the second night.

As of July 8, 16 establishments had registered to take part in the programme, including Mường Thanh Luxury, Đồng Khánh, The Myst and Liberty Central Sài Gòn.

A representative of the municipal Department of Tourism said that to meet people’s travelling demand during the 2024 peak summer season, airlines have increased night flights to help cool down airfares, but they were not attractive enough, leading to the cancellation of some flights.

Vietnam Airlines will continue to coordinate with accommodation establishments to devise packages including round-trip air tickets and two or three nights staying at hotels in the city to attract more visitors to the southern largest economic hub, the representative added.

In the first six months of this year, the city served 2.68 million visitors, up 38 per cent year on year, fulfilling 44.6 per cent of the city’s target for the whole year, with a tourism revenue of VNĐ92.6 trillion (US$3.63 billion), a year-on-year rise of 14.6 per cent.

The results were attributed to the city’s efforts in organising various large-scale tourism activities and strengthening linkage with foreign tourism markets.

In late June, the municipal Department of Tourism had a working session with Chen Mei-hsiu, Director of the Tourism and Travel Bureau of Taichung city of Taiwan (China) to discuss plans to promote tourism cooperation between Việt Nam in general and HCM City in particular with Taichung.

In the Jan-May period, Việt Nam welcomed 530,000 tourists from Taiwan, of whom about 193,000 visited HCM City, making Taiwan the fifth largest international market of the city.

Also in June, the department also worked with Armenian Ambassador to Vietnam Suren Baghdasaryan. Vietnam and Armenia are each other’s new tourism market and people of the two sides have still lacked information about each other’s country. At the meeting, municipal officials said that the city will actively promote Vietnamese tourism by organising tourism promotion events in Armenia.

Director of the Department of Tourism Nguyễn Thi Anh Hòa said that the department has asked for cooperation from embassies and tourism promotion agencies of other countries in exchanging information and introduce the culture, people and tourism of Việt Nam and HCM City to people of other countries and vice versa through each other’s communications channels.

On July 9, the department held a ceremony to announce a series of short films promoting local tourism.

The event formed part of a series of activities aimed at boosting HCM City tourism, delivering the message “Welcome to Hồ Chí Minh City” to domestic and international tourists. The series, themed “A Vibrant Journey”, will offer new experiences and perspectives to tourists to explore and learn about the city’s history, culture, cuisine, architecture, and diverse arts, tourist attractions, and tourism services.

The tourism promotion films will provide viewers an opportunity to visit impressive destinations, enjoy the unique and distinctive beauty of the southern metropolis with numerous famous landmarks, beautiful natural landscapes, and cultural heritage sites; as well as experience the diverse cuisine, the vibrant and dynamic atmosphere and the hospitality of local people. The movies present many tourist attractions in the list of “Hồ Chí Minh City-100 interesting things” and restaurants rated by the Michelin Guide Vietnam. VNA/VNS