The tourism sectors of southern provinces and cities are exerting efforts to reform and diversify products to attract visitors while ensuring safety in the ‘new normal’, as the 2022 New Year and traditional Tet (Lunar New Year) holidays approach.
Tourists ride bicycles to tour Can Gio district of Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: VNA)
Numerous travel companies and tourist destinations have resumed on-the-spot tours and multi-day ones to northwestern and central localities, together with those in Vietnam’s southwest coastal areas like Phu Quoc and Ha Tien of the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang.
A representative of Saigontourist said that it has designed various tourism products to meet demand of customers in different market segments, ranging from programmes serving small groups of family members and friends to those of meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) tourism.
The tourism programmes have been carried out in a flexible manner in open space with preventive measures being in place.
In December, more than 1,200 tourists of 14 delegations registered to participate in Saigontourist’s MICE tourism programmes in Ha Long of the northern province of Quang Ninh; Da Nang and Quy Nhon of Binh Dinh in the central region; and Ben Tre, Ho Chi Minh City and Phu Quoc in the south.
General Director of Vinpearl Nguyen Thu Phuong said the success in welcoming nearly 200 tourists from the Republic of Korea to Phu Quoc in late November helped bolster the hospitality-recreation developer and operator’s confidence in rolling out new products for domestic and foreign holidaymakers.
Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa said the southern economic hub is home to more than 360 tourist attractions, including top natural and cultural heritage sites in Vietnam and the region.
In addition to existing tourism products favoured by tourists, Ho Chi Minh City authorities are working to develop other types, namely culinary tourism, shopping tourism, waterway tourism, eco-tourism and medical tourism to attract visitors in the ‘new normal’.