More policies implemented for tourism in Ho Chi Minh City

In order to develop tourism, which has been long considered an advantage of Ho Chi Minh City, the city authorities has launched new policy on this service industry. These set of policies mostly aim at diversify tourism types and enhancing quality of travelling products. The policy targets at budget travel and “free & easy” tourism to provide tours with affordable and sustainable quality. Annual tourism events and festivals are also in place to promote cultural value of this dynamic city.

At present, Ho Chi Minh City tourism department (a part of Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) is collaborating with the City Institute of Development in Tourism to research and implement a general plan to improve the city’s tourism fro 2011 to 2020. The plan includes creating more river tours, improving connection between Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Thuan and Lam Dong, cooperating with other provinces nearby such as Khanh Hoa, Phu Yen. The city has also opened more courses on hospitality, cooking, securities and tour guides for capacity building of tourism labour in the city. 

Besides Ho Chi Minh City authority’s effort to attract more tourists, numerous tourism firms are also investing massively to improve their services themselves. For instance, Moevenpick has completely re-furnished its amenities, while REX hotel is now working on upgrading its old buildings and establishing new luxurious plaza. 

Ho Chi Minh City is considered as a gold mine to Vietnam’s tourism industry with many fascinating tourism products. It is estimated that there are about 2,420,000 tourists travelling to HCMC in the first 9 months in 2011, bringing to the city’s budget about 34,000 billion VND (1.5 billion USD).