HCM City eyes on India as potential tourism market

Ho Chi Minh City’s Tourism Department has been launching plans to attract more visitors from India, which is considered a great potential market.
A corner of HCM City (Photo: VNA)
A corner of HCM City (Photo: VNA)
At the May meeting on socio-economic issues of the municipal People’s Committee on May 30, Director of the department Bui Ta Hoang Vu said his agency had been working with several airlines to boost Vietnamese images to India. He noted that while 1.6 million Indians travelled to Thailand in 2017, only 170,000 visited Vietnam.
The low-cost airline Vietjet Air is scheduled to open direct flights between HCM City and India this September.
The Tourism Department has developed products designed for this market and held some tourism promotion activities in the country.
Mr. Vu added that the department has also asked local restaurants to design dishes specifically for Indian guests.
It was reported at the meeting that 566,390 foreign tourists arrived in the city in May, up 37 percent year on year. Revenues from tourism came to around 9.3 trillion VND (over 406 million USD), up 3.03 percent.
For the January-May period, the total number of foreign arrivals was 3.18 million, a 32 percent increase, while tourism revenues were estimated at 51.65 trillion VND, up 14.8 percent.
A recent survey jointly conducted by the Tourism Department and the municipal Statistics Office showed tourists both domestic and foreign stayed for an average 5 days in the city and spent around 145 USD a day, which showed a reduction in stay duration compared to a survey of the Vietnam National Tourism Administration in 2013 but the spending remained the same.
Chairman of the city People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong stressed that tourism has been defined as a spearhead economic sector of the city. He urged the tourist officials and bussinesses to study ways to keep visitors stay longer.

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