Visitors explore HCM City by double-decker water bus. VNS Photo Thu Hằng

HCM CITY — HCM City will focus on efforts to diversify tourism products and events and improve tourism products and services to attract domestic and foreign tourists, tourism authorities said.

Speaking at a conference reviewing the tourism sector’s activities in 2023 and outlining tasks for 2024 last week, deputy director of the City's Department of Tourism Lê Trương Hiền Hòa said HCM City has maintained its leading position in terms of number of tourists and revenue.

It welcomed nearly five million international tourists and nearly 35 million domestic tourists last year.

Tourism revenue was estimated at more than VNĐ160 trillion (US$6.6 billion).

The city received the “Asia’s Leading Business Travel Destination” award and the “Asia’s Leading Festival and Event Destination” in 2023, he said.

It has launched nearly 50 tourism products over the past year to lure tourists, he said.

It has set a target of receiving six million international tourists and 38 million domestic tourists this year. Tourism revenue is expected to total VNĐ190 trillion ($7.8 billion).

It will boost key tourism products - the Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing, and Exhibitions (MICE), golf and sea tourism – and diversify cuisine, entertainment and shopping activities to serve tourists.

Nguyễn Trùng Khánh, director general of the Việt Nam National Administration of Tourism under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said HCM City would play a vital role in the recovery and growth of the country’s tourism sector.

The city needs to ultilise its tourism potential and develop new and unique products and services, Khánh said.

He urged the city’s tourism sector to promote digital transformation and tourism linkages with localities in the southeastern region, the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta and other regions in the country which will create a breakthrough in tourism development.

Nguyễn Văn Dũng, deputy chairman of the city People’s Committee, asked the tourism sector to coordinate closely with other sectors to make it more attractive to tourists and increase their length of stay and spending.

The city’s Department of Tourism needs to finalise a strategy for tourism development to 2030 in line with the city’s master plan on economy development, he said. —VNS