HCM City - most favoured destination for domestic travellers

HCM City (VNS/VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City received hundreds of thousands of visitors during the National Day holidays, according to the municipal Department of Tourism.

Domestic tourism continued to lead the sector’s revival, with HCM City remaining the top destination for local travellers in 2022, a study of travel trends this summer by online digital travel platform Agoda found.

It was followed by Da Nang, Hanoi, Vung Tau, Da Lat, Nha Trang, Phu Quoc, Ha Long, Hoi An, and Phan Thiet.

Beach destinations dominated the list as the country sweltered through a heatwave.

In HCM City, people visited the usual tourist attractions and amusement parks, with the numbers estimated at 920,000 domestic and 32,484 international guests.

Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa, Director of the Department of Tourism, said visitors’ top activities include sightseeing, mostly of historic sites and museums, and shopping.

New tourism offerings are an attraction, she said.

To revive tourism following the end of COVID, the department has been coordinating with travel firms to develop intra-city and river-based tours.

It is offering incentives to boost MICE tourism (meeting, incentive, convention, exhibition), and ongoing tourism stimulus programmes will continue for the rest of the year.

More than 70% of travel businesses have fully resumed operations and around 20 others have applied for a new licence.

The average occupancy rate at three-, four- and five-star hotels in the city was 75% during the holidays.

Park Hyatt Saigon reported an 80-85% rate while Sheraton Saigon reported 85-90%.

A Tourism Cuisine Culture Festival held in Cu Chi district from September 1 to 4 attracted more than 25,000 visitors.

The festival is an opportunity to promote the cultural identity, traditional values, and tourist attractions of Cu Chi district to visitors and help fulfil its tourism potential.

The district’s attractions include Ben Duoc Tunnel, Ben Duoc Memorial Temple, a memorial house for Vietnamese Heroic Mother Nguyen Thi Ranh, a high-tech agricultural zone, and fruit gardens in Trung An commune.

Shopping malls and supermarkets like Emart Go Vap, MM Mega Market, Vincom, GigaMall, and Aeon received large numbers of shoppers estimated at 15-50% more than on normal days.

Tan Son Nhat International Airport handled a total of 204,000 passengers during the holidays.

The airport coordinated with carriers and related agencies and deployed over 300 volunteers to regulate traffic and ensure safety and security on the streets.

More than 1,100 buses with over 77,000 passengers plied between the airport and Eastern Coach Station in Binh Thanh district during the holidays.

Popular amusement sites and tourist attractions such as Suoi Tien Theme Park, the zoo, Dam Sen Cultural Park, Ao Dai Museum, and the Cu Chi [guerrilla warfare] Tunnels saw an influx of visitors.

Bui Thi To Trinh, Deputy General director of the Suoi Tiên Theme Park, said at least 40,000 visitors came during the holidays.

The theme park has invested in upgrades to infrastructure, planted more trees and launched a farm which offers hands-on experience in farming and high-tech planting technologies, she added.

Around 170,000 people visited the Cu Chi Tunnels while 25,000 checked out the zoo.

The city has dozens of tourism programmes in place and will add before the end of the year.

Thanks to these, in the year-to-date more than 16.77 million domestic tourists visited the city, accounting for 84% of the year’s target.

Tourism revenues in the period are estimated at 74.5 trillion VND (3.3 billion USD) or 93% of the target./.