Ho Chi Minh City (VNA)♕ – Southern provinces and cities in Vietnam saw positive signs from the tourism industry in the first three months of this year with diverse products, tours, and activities to attract visitors.

According to Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, in the first quarter of this year, the city welcomed over 7.5 million domestic visitors and over 1 million international arrivals, an increase of nearly 60% and 100%, respectively, compared to the same period last year. Revenue from accommodation and food services in the city increased by over 37% in the last three months, while revenue from travel services increased by 84.5 % over the same period last year. The city developed effective tourism products, and each district developed at least one. Known as a place of dynamic tourism, the city continuously organised events to attract visitors such as the Vietnamese New Year Festival, the Nguyen Hue Spring Flower Festival, Book Street, Golf Tourism Festival, Ao dai festival, and Banh mi Festival. Meanwhile, Ba Ria-Vung Tau province welcomed over 3.4 million visitors including over 48,000 international guests in the first quarter of this year, a year-on-year increase of more than 42%. Destinations for sea and island tourism, resort tourism, cultural and historical sites, and ecotourism continue to attract tourists, especially during weekends and holidays. In the first quarter, the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang welcomed nearly 2.3 million visitors. Particularly, Phu Quoc city - a prominent destination on the domestic and international tourism map - welcomed more than 1.5 million visitors, an increase of over 43% over the same period in 2022. Tourism establishments in the province have deployed solutions to further promote and develop tourism products that meet the rising demands. Meanwhile, the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho saw accommodation services double over the same period last year, reaching nearly 410 billion VND (17.5 million USD).  The city’s tourism revenue reached over 52 billion VND, up nearly 16% over the same period.

Develop products, branding

After achieving positive results in tourism recovery in the first quarter, localities proposed solutions to continue diversifying products and expanding markets. Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa, Director of the Department of Tourism of Ho Chi Minh City, said that the city continues to implement its tourism development strategy with a focus on improving quality and diversifying products. The city targets to develop products for different tourist segments and products for waterway, medical, cultural, and culinary tourism.  For promotion activities, the city introduces those and destinations not only in Ho Chi Minh City but also connected with localities in the southeast region and the Mekong Delta, central coast, Central Highlands, Red River Delta, and northwest region to create attractive tours.  The city also strengthened coordination with provinces and cities in digital transformation to increase the effectiveness of tourism promotion online.  They are building a common database that helps businesses develop inter-provincial and inter-regional products and call for effective investment. Director of the Kien Giang provincial Department of Tourism Bui Quoc Thai said that to keep attracting tourists, the province has stepped up promotion for destinations such as Phu Quoc island, Ha Tien city, and Rach Gia city, and districts of U Minh Thuong, Kien Luong, Kien Hai, and Hon Dat. The province’s tourism sector cooperates with others of agriculture, industry, and trade to exploit agricultural products, specialties, and craft villages associated with tourism activities. A representative from Vietravel said that to attract local and international visitors with higher spending, localities need to improve and renew products, especially tourism ones and night services.  They should focus on developing groups of products associated with community culture, entertainment, cuisine, and products associated with cultural and art programmes./.