HCMCity (VNA) - The HCM City Tourism Association kicked off the 2017domestic tourism promotion programme with discounts of up to 70 percent onpackage tours on December 20.

Theparticipating companies include Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet Air, Jetstar Pacific,Saigon Railway Transport Joint Stock Company and Hanoi Railway Transport JointStock Company, Nguyen Thi Khanh, deputy head of the association, said.

Nextyear, the programme would offer tour packages by air with discounts of 70 percent,she said.

Underthe programme, a promotion campaign titled Du Xuân Sài Gòn và Du Xuân PhươngNam (Enjoying Spring in Saigon and the Southern Region) offers discounts on airand railway fares to HCM City and neighbouring provinces before and after Tet (theLunar New Year).

TheSaigon Railway Transport Joint Stock Company would offer discounts of 40-50 percenton all railway fares as part of tourism stimulus packages next year, Le QuocTrung, deputy general director of the company, said.

Duringholidays, the fares would be cut by 10 percent, he said.

Nearly221,000 air tickets were sold this year as part of the tourism stimuluspackages, 287 percent up from last year.

Mostof these tours were from HCM City to Phu Quoc, Hanoi, Hue, Da Nang, Nha Trang,and Hai Phong.

Morethan 13,000 railway tickets were sold this year.

Newtourism products

TranVinh Tuyen, Deputy Chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee, has instructedthe departments of tourism, culture and sports and transport to develop seventourism products next year.

Ata meeting held last week to discuss tourism development plans for next year, hesaid at least one or two new river sightseeing tours with dining on board wouldbe launched by private operators next year.

Streetart activities such as the lion-dragon dance festival and circus festivalshould be held annually to boost the city’s tourism prospects, he said.

Hesaid fireworks displays in combination with lighting art festivals should beorganised regularly with the involvement of private investors.

Ruraltourism in the city’s outlying districts of Can Gio and Hoc Mon has hugepotential for sightseeing and leisure tours in combination with culinarytourism and farming activities, he said.

Healso instructed the Department of Tourism to finalise a master plan for tourismdevelopment for up to 2020.

Thenumber of foreign visitors to HCM City is estimated at 5.2 million this year,10 percent higher than last year, according to the tourism department.

Thenumber of domestic visitors to the city topped 21.8 million, again ayear-on-year increase of 10 percent.

Tourismrevenues rose by 9 percent from last year to 103 trillion VND (4.53 billion USD)this year.

Thedepartment targets 5.5 million international visitors and 24 domestic visitorsnext year.

Itplans to organise a tourism event every month to attract visitors.-VNA