The eighth Ho Chi Minh City Ao Dai festival is being held across the metropolis to honour the beauty of the Vietnamese traditional dress. This cultural event also marks the start of a series of activities to promote the city’s image to foreign visitors.
Earlier this month, the municipal Tourism Department signed cooperation agreements with the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham) and the Vietnam Airport Ground Services Company Limited (VIAGS) on boosting tourism in the city.
The deals are part of the efforts to sustainably speed up tourism recovery and development in HCM City and the whole nation.
Accordingly, HCM City and the EuroCham will work together in promoting MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, and events) and cuisine tourism in the city in the 2022-2024 period.
Under the agreement, the two sides will strengthen activities on market research, tourism statistics and human resources training, while sharing experience in tourism management and operation. They will expand the direct channel of promotion to popularise the image of the city to more European firms and citizens in Vietnam as well as those in foreign countries.
EuroCham Chairman Alain Cany said that tourism is one of the dynamic sectors of Vietnam. Despite impacts of the COVID-19, the sector is recovering, he noted, adding that EuroCham hailed Vietnam’s door-opening policies, including visa exemption for European visitors, to promote this process.
With its role of connecting European firms with their peers in Vietnam, EuroCham hopes help the city to strengthen its capacity to research, develop its website, share database, and train human resources, he said.
Meanwhile, in the 2022-2027 period, HCM City and VIAGS will coordinate in raising the number and quality of tourists in the city as well as market research and building tourism trademark for the city, thus attracting more MICE tourists.
Not only a lively destination with its own beauty, Ho Chi Minh City also helps connect international delegations and tourist attractions throughout Vietnam when they come to the country.
Mindful of that important role, the city has actively cooperated with regions, provinces and cities with strengths in tourism. On March 16-18, a conference on the implementation of the programme on cooperation in tourism development between the southern largest economic hub and 12 provinces and Can Tho city in the Mekong Delta region was organised in Bac Lieu province.
During this event, these 14 localities signed a cooperation agreement on tourism development and launched the reopening of tourism in the new normal.
Director of Ho Chi Minh City’s Department of Tourism Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa stated that the city's travel businesses have built more than 50 tours to stimulate demand from the city to the 13 Mekong Delta localities.
To attract more foreign visitors this year, the city is carrying out the “Welcome to Ho Chi Minh City” programme from March 15 to September 15, with bonuses to participants.
The city currently has over 6,800 luxury hotel rooms that can meet requirements on piloting the welcome of foreign tourists./.
