Foreign visitors in HCM City surge in the first half of 2022. – Photo baochinhphu.vn

HCM CITY – Domestic tourism to HCM City surged in the first six months of the year, as Vietnamese travellers sought to make up for lost time after more than two years of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

About 11 million domestic visitors visited HCM City in the first half of 2022, up 43.1 per cent over the same period last year, according to HCM City Department of Tourism.

In addition, nearly three million passengers passed through Tân Sơn Nhất airport in June, with 1.4 million of those passengers staying in HCM City.             

Normally, the number of passengers arriving and leaving HCM City rise in June from May as the summer holiday season peaks.

After Việt Nam reopened tourism earlier this year to international visitors, nearly 478,000 arrived in the first half of the year, up 100 per cent from the same period a year earlier, according to the department.

HCM City Department of Tourism announced that total tourism revenue in the first half of 2022 was VNĐ49.7 billion (nearly US$2.2 billion), up 29.9 per cent compared to the same period last year, reaching 73.5 per cent of the year’s target.

The HCM City tourism industry has prepared plans to prevent overload from surging tourism demand. It is focusing on creating new tours, and instructing tourism enterprises and amusement parks to hire more personnel.

HCM City has developed a river tourism product to attract visitors to the city. – VNS