HCM City tourism authorities welcome the luxury cruise ship Le Lapérouse on October 2. Photo courtesy of the HCM City Department of Tourism

HCM CITY — HCM City travel firms are in full swing to welcome holidaymakers during the peak travel season of the last three months of the year, tourism authorities said.

Nguyễn Hữu Y Yên, general director of Saigontourist, said domestic tourism, and inbound and outbound tourism had all fully resumed.

International tourist groups travelling to Việt Nam had increased sharply, mostly from Europe, Australia and the US, Yên said.

Cruise ship passengers visiting Việt Nam had resumed gradually, he said.

On October 2, HCM City received the luxury cruise ship Le Lapérouse.

The ship brought nearly 100 tourists of French, American, and German nationalities and stayed in the city for three days.

After leaving HCM City, the cruise ship will visit other destinations such as Nha Trang, Quy Nhơn, Đà Nẵng, Huế, Quảng Bình, and Hạ Long.

HCM City is expected to receive a few large cruise ships with 200-300 guests each to visit this year, according to the city’s Department of Tourism.

Nguyễn Thị Khánh, chairwoman of the HCM City Association of Tourism, said this month kickstarted the busiest season of inbound tourism, but the number of large international tourist groups visiting the country remained modest.

Domestic travel firms would have to find new international travel markets to replace traditional travel markets such as China and Russia, which would not recover this year.

Nguyễn Minh Mẫn, marketing and communications director of TSTtourist, said travellers from India and ASEAN countries considered Việt Nam as an attractive destination for their holidays.

According to Nguyễn Thị Ánh Hoa, director of the city’s Department of Tourism, the last three months of the year is the peak time for international tourists travelling to Việt Nam.

The city had focused on efforts to diversify travel products and promote its marketing and communications campaign, ‘Welcome to HCM City’, that aims to bolster the city’s image as a vibrant, friendly and safe travel destination, Hoa said.

A wide range of new tourism products had been launched to lure tourists, she said.

"The target of receiving more than two million international visitor arrivals this year is definitely achievable," she added.

HCM City was listed among seven destinations that are seeing surges in interest from travelers this fall by the US magazine Condé Nast Traveler.

According to metasearch site Kayak, HCM City has seen an increase of 46 per cent in searches compared to 2019.

Expedia reported a 630 per cent growth in searches from last fall.

In the first nine months of this year, the city received 20.6 million domestic visitor arrivals and 2.11 million international visitor arrivals, up 66 per cent and 100 per cent year-on-year, respectively.

Tourism turnover surged 3.9-times year-on-year to total VNĐ18.2 trillion (US$756 million). —VNS