Ho Chi Minh City received more than 676,565 international arrivals and over 4.6 million domestic tourists during the first two months of the year, earning over VND21 trillion and fulfilling 13% of the yearly plan, according to the municipal Department of Tourism.
February alone saw foreign visitors to the city surge by 100% against the same period from last year, reaching nearly 320,000, while the number of domestic holidaymakers stood at 2.6 million, bringing in VND12 trillion in revenue, up 115.8% year on year.
This increase can largely be attributed to the fact that the city’s tourism industry continues to fully tap into the tourism potential of Thu Duc city and neighbouring localities.
Furthermore, the city welcomed a series of MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, and events) delegations in February with more than 1,000 international arrivals coming from Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, China, and Taiwan (China).
At present, the local tourism industry is fine-tuning policies aimed at developing MICE tourism in a bid to further attract more arrivals moving forward.
The tourism industry has completed plans to develop waterway, cultural, and historical tourism products, and facilitate the development of night-time tourism, agro-tourism, and eco-tourism. It is also planning to sign co-operation agreements on inter-regional tourism development with localities.
The city will also accelerate the development of community tourism products on Thieng Lieng island of Thanh An island commune in Can Gio district, fully tapping into its river-based tourism potential and effectively implementing upcoming events such as the ninth Ao Dai Festival, the 19th HCM City Tourism Festival, and the HCM City River Festival.