The HCM City first-ever river festival held from August 4 to 6 offered many cultural and entertainment activities related to the city’s waterways for locals and tourists. (Photo: VNA)
The municipal People’s Committee has issued a plan for thedevelopment of waterway tourism products in the 2023-25 period.
The city’s waterway tourism has great natural advantages for strong developmentthanks to its system of rivers and canals with scenic views. Waterway tours areconsidered as one of the city’s new tourism products that are expected toprovide new, attractive experiences to visitors.
Under the plan, the city plans to launch waterway tourism products in allinland routes on all rivers in the city, and inter-provincial routes connectingwith the neighbouring provinces of Dong Nai, Binh Duong, Tien Giang, Long Anand Ben Tre.
By 2025, it aims to develop at least 10 waterway tours and waterway tour programmeslinking seaports and river routes.
The city is striving to welcome about 500,000 visitors a year to waterwaytourism programmes in the 2023-24 period. This number is expected to increaseby 10% in the following years.
The number of international cruise ship tourists arriving in the city will be100,000 in 2023 and 2024, and rise 12-15% in the following years.
In the 2023-24 period, the city’s cruise industry is expected to hit 500billion VND (21 million USD) per year in revenue, and increase by 12% in thefollowing years.
The municipal People’s Committee has also asked relevant agencies to focus onimproving the quality of waterway tourism products, including river tours.
The city seeks to develop waterway tourism to become a typical tourism product,contributing to the diversification of the city’s tourism products.
It is striving to have hundreds of water transport craft by 2025, including 200canoes and 100 boats, ships, cruise ships and others.
It will improve voice-over translation systems to provide tourists withinformation about waterway tourism routes, and identify the historical andcultural values of rivers and canals across the city.
The municipal administration has urged relevant units to use geographicinformation system (GIS) technology for building detailed maps of waterwaytourism routes and destinations on the routes.
It will build more wharves and launch new waterway tourism products andprogrammes, boost cruise tourism, and develop tourism and entertainment servicesalong the river bank and on river cruise ships.
Its first-ever river festival was organised from August 4 to 6 with a series ofcultural and entertainment activities related to the city’s waterways forlocals and tourists.
The festival aimed to preserve and promote the city’s culture and history as aculturally rich riverside urban area, and make use of its waterways to boostthe economy and tourism.
It is expected to become a highlight of the city’s tourism in thefuture./.
VNA
