To come up with a list of the 10 most affordable cities in Asia, Travel+Leisure looked at searches on online travel platform Kayak from January to June 2024 in terms of second-half Asian travel demand. this year. Results are based on the average total cost (price of 1 round-trip economy class airline ticket and 1 night stay in a standard double hotel room) of cities across Asia.
Accordingly, Ho Chi Minh City is ranked 2nd on the list with an average total cost (for 1 round-trip air ticket from the US and 1 night in a hotel) of 1,452 USD (about 36.7 million VND).
According to Ethan Crowley, a trip planner at Asia Desk, a Vietnamese airline has direct flights from San Francisco to Ho Chi Minh City with prices from 660 USD (about 16.7 million VND) for a round-trip ticket. This is currently one of the only non-stop direct flights from Southeast Asia to North America.
In addition to cheap flights, Crowley said food and accommodation in Ho Chi Minh City are also affordable. He said that Vietnam may be "the country with the lowest costs for tourists" in Southeast Asia.
Besides Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi also ranked 9th on the list with an average total cost of 1,546 USD (about 39 million VND).
“Vietnam is a country with cheap food, quality hotels and excellent transportation,” said Crowley. Accommodation, from budget to luxury, is much cheaper than in surrounding countries.
Business class domestic flights in Vietnam are of excellent quality and also make the experience of the country's crowded airports more enjoyable. Even economy flights are much cheaper than similar routes in the US. Vietnamese street food is some of the cheapest in the area.”
The Americas are a potential tourist market for Vietnamese tourism. In the first 7 months of this year alone, there were 610,200 visitors from the Americas traveling to Vietnam.
Besides Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the remaining destinations in the top 10 cheapest cities in Asia for tourists in 2024 include Taipei (Taiwan, China), the capital Jakarta (Indonesia), New Delhi (India), Bangkok (Thailand), Manila (Philippines), Tokyo (Japan), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and Osaka (Japan).
