Recorded at typical cultural and historical destinations in the central area of Ho Chi Minh City such as Independence Palace, Ben Thanh Market, the flow of domestic and foreign tourists always maintains bustlingness.
Mr. Ho Dung (a tourist from Hanoi) shared that Ben Thanh Market is always a priority stop every time he comes to Ho Chi Minh City: "Every time I mention Ho Chi Minh City, everyone immediately thinks of Ben Thanh Market. This is a unique cultural feature that I always want to visit to blend into the daily rhythm of life in this city.
Sharing her feelings when coming to the city for the first time, Ms. Julia (Polish tourist) expressed her impression of the rich cuisine, the friendliness of the people and the heritage sites. "2 days in Ho Chi Minh City is not enough. I will definitely come back here and spend at least 3 to 4 days to explore this city more fully" - Ms. Julia shared.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, currently, the city for the first time owns all 3 layers of resources in the same administrative unit: heritage and creative urban area, industry and service urban area, sea and islands. The current restructuring problem is not only creating more new products but also structuring what already exists into a seamless experience chain.
The tourism space is being reorganized according to the framework of economic poles and functional corridors. In which, the core center (Saigon - Cho Lon - Thu Thiem) plays the role of gateway, focusing on conferences, cuisine, shopping, health and night economy; the Saigon, Dong Nai, Nha Be, Soai Rap, Thi Vai river systems become a connecting axis for experience instead of just landscape; the end point of the journey is the Can Gio - Vung Tau - Long Hai - Ho Tram - Con Dao coastal strip.
From this space framework, the tourism industry focuses on developing 3 characteristic experience chains including: urban - river - sea chain to help tourists travel smoothly on the same trip; MICE tourism chain combining conferences with night economy to exploit high-spending customers, less affected by seasonality; healthcare tourism chain promoting the city's leading specialized system.
At the same time, Ho Chi Minh City is shifting from a national market approach to a deep segmentation approach: high-spending customers, long-term accommodation customers, MICE customers, medical tourists and cruise passengers.
It can be seen that the foundation for this orientation is strengthened by the resurgence from the market through recent tourist peak periods. Typically, during the September 2nd holiday, Ho Chi Minh City welcomed about 1.65 million domestic tourists and 62,000 international tourists, bringing in revenue of about 4,900 billion VND.
In this overall picture, the sea tourism pole recorded growth when the beaches in Vung Tau welcomed tens of thousands of visitors per day, while Con Dao achieved an increase of more than 52% in total visitors and more than 56% in revenue.
Meanwhile, the Binh Duong area not only plays the role of an industrial and urban development area but is also opening up great room for tourism products associated with modern urban areas, industry, culture, events, entertainment and shopping. This support helps complete the 3-layer resource piece, creating a seamless and diverse tourism product system for the whole region.
