Half a century since Saigon - Gia Dinh City was honored to be named after President Ho Chi Minh (July 2, 1976 - July 2, 2026), the city's tourism industry has risen to become the leading locomotive of Vietnamese tourism, playing the role of a gateway to welcome international visitors and a dynamic and modern destination in the country.
Lao Dong Newspaper had a conversation with Mr. Le Truong Hien Hoa - Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism about the outstanding milestones in the 50-year journey of the city named after Uncle Ho as well as the direction to bring the city's tourism to break through in the coming period.
Sir, after 50 years since the city took Uncle Ho's name, what developments has the tourism industry of Ho Chi Minh City made?
- It can be said that over the past 50 years, Ho Chi Minh City's tourism industry has made strong changes in both quality and quantity, creating many important imprints nationwide.
First of all, Ho Chi Minh City always maintains the number of international visitors accounting for nearly 50% of the total number of international visitors to Vietnam. Along with that, Tan Son Nhat airport continues to play the role of a gateway for trade and important connections, not only a transit point but also a focal point to attract international visitors to Vietnam.
Another highlight is the strong development of the tourism business community, accommodation system and destinations. In recent years, the city has always focused on developing human resources, improving the capacity of tourism businesses and accommodation businesses, and at the same time, constantly investing in and improving the quality of tourism products. These are the factors that create motivation for the city's tourism industry to develop and become a destination for many large groups of tourists.
In addition, the tourism industry also contributes a very large source of revenue to the city's economy, contributing to making Ho Chi Minh City a locomotive to promote the development of Vietnamese tourism.
The city is also proud to be the venue for many large-scale and typical tourism events such as the ITE HCMC International Tourism Fair. In addition, there are many unique cultural and historical events along with a series of tourism development products and programs and industry recommendations that have been recognized, creating more motivation for Ho Chi Minh City tourism to continue to develop, accompanying the city's development.
So what are the orientations to help Ho Chi Minh City's tourism industry continue to promote its leading role in the coming time?
- In the past time, Ho Chi Minh City's tourism industry has flexibly applied the new guidelines and policies of the Government as well as the directions and directions of city leaders to develop the industry.
First of all, the city clearly identifies the pillars of tourism development based on existing advantages, such as the system of cultural and historical relics, urban tourism, and river tourism. At the same time, the city also promotes typical tourism products such as shopping tourism, night economy and types of services associated with the advantages of large cities.
In the coming time, in addition to its leading role, the city's tourism industry will continue to expand and explore new markets. In addition to traditional markets, the city will strengthen promotion and advertising in markets such as North America and Australia.
At the same time, focus on attracting foreign investment capital into the tourism sector. With more investment resources, the city will have conditions to continue to improve institutions and propose appropriate policies to create motivation for tourism in Ho Chi Minh City in particular and Vietnam in general.
From now until the end of the year, what highlights will the Ho Chi Minh City tourism industry focus on in promotion, advertising and product development activities to complete the set goals?
- In the upcoming development orientation, in addition to the goal of increasing the number of visitors, the industry especially emphasizes the requirement to improve service quality. This is also reflected in the industry's development goals.
This is both a challenge and a motivation for the tourism industry and the business community to continue to invest more strongly in service quality and product quality. Thereby, not only increasing revenue from tourism but also contributing more effectively to the economic growth of Ho Chi Minh City, and at the same time, encouraging businesses to constantly innovate and develop high value-added tourism products.
Thank you, sir!
