A tour at a milk factory in Bình Dương. HCM City is looking into developing its industrial tourism sector. VNA/VNS Photo

HCM CITY - HCM City’s efforts to promote industrial tourism are failing to attract foreign visitors since factories show little interest in working with tour operators.

Industrial tourism leverages resources from traditional industries to create unique destinations, encouraging companies to utilise their factories and showrooms to offer visitor experiences.

Nguyễn Thị Thuỳ Trang, a tour guide, told Tuổi Trẻ newspaper that in nearly 10 years of working she has only once seen a travel company collaborate with a ceramics manufacturer in the former province of Bình Dương to take overseas visitors to its factory and showroom.

According to Từ Quý Thanh, director of Liên Bang Travel, his company once took international semiconductor clients to a local plant, but the factory refused further trips, citing low returns and administrative issues.

Dr. Dương Đức Minh, deputy director of the Institute for Economic and Tourism Development Research, told Tuổi Trẻ that industrial tourism lacks products for investor groups and experts.

He attributes this to a lack of flexible policies to create service chains that meet their specific needs. 

Huỳnh Phan Phương Hoàng, deputy CEO of Vietravel, said industrial tourism needs to be carefully developed through collaboration between tour operators, industrial parks and new urban areas.  

The Government should serve as a key catalyst to foster cooperation between tour operators and industrial firms, he added.

The establishment of hi-tech parks and urban industrial parks is attracting foreign intellectual workers, so the city should design tourism services to appeal to this lucrative customer base.

Developing specialised tourism packages for professionals by integrating work and leisure could benefit the sector and forge stronger links with local industry, he added. - VNS