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Ho Chi Minh City Post Office - an attractive tourist attraction |
Excited and joyful Spring and New Year
During the first days of 2023, there was a large number of tourists and local people flocking to tourists attractions in the city. Several places in the city center, which attracted numerous visitors, were the Independence Palace, the Ho Chi Minh City Post Office, the Ho Chi Minh City Opera House, the Nguyen Hue Pedestrian Street, and the Bach Dang Wharf Park.
Nguyen Trong Nam and his family had great time together to enjoy coffee and street music when visiting the city center. He shared that he has been living in the city for a long time, but only on this occasion, his family had an opportunity to discover the city center, take photos with friends and relatives. He added that local people need to join hands to popularize the beauty of the city to more tourists at home and abroad.
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Tourists taking a joint photo in front of the Independence Palace |
On this occasion, the Dam Sen Cultural Park in District 11 offered several interesting programs to lure more visitors to the place while the Suoi Tien Theme Park also released new tourism services for tourists. Meanwhile, the Ao Dai Museum retraced the traditional lunar New Year (Tet) scenes in Vietnamese villages and served the tourists’ need of taking photos with ao dai (traditional long dress).
Thu Duc city authorities introduced new tourism products and programs, which retraced the history and beauty of the city’s historical places and its people.
In 2022, the overall turnover of the tourism industry of Ho Chi Minh city reached over VND 131 trillion, increasing by 196.4 percent compared to 2021 and 45.7 percent in comparison with the set plan for 2022. The city’s tourism industry received numerous prestigious prizes, including “Asia's Leading Business Travel Destination 2022,” “Asia's Best MICE Destination,” and “Asia's Leading City Tourist Board for 2022” from the World MICE Awards and the prestigious World Travel Awards.
Recently, the city was listed as one of the 15 cities most searched globally by travelers for the year-end holiday season, according to hotel booking data from online travel agency Booking.com. In addition, the city’s tourism was broadcast on CNN news channel for the first time, a positive signal, which might help the locality welcome more visitors and investors.
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Korean visitors visiting Ho Chi Minh City |
According to Director of the Ho Chi Minh Municipal Department of Tourism Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa, the agency has deployed numerous programs to promote tourism activities in the hope of luring more visitors to the city during upcoming Tet holidays. These help improve patriotism and pride of the country among the community while creating motivation for the local tourism to recover and contribute effectively to the city’s socio-economic development.
Targeting to receive 5 million foreign visitors
On the first day of 2023, the city’s tourism sector held a ceremony to welcome the first visitors to the city. Foreign tourists had unexpected joy when joining interesting activities such as calligraphy writing, conical hats drawing, to he (toy figurine – traditional toy for children in Vietnam) making, and tea party, and so on.
As one of the first six visitors to Ho Chi Minh City on January 1 on flight VN30, departing from Frankfurt (Germany) presented special gifts from the host, Kieu Anh shared that she was touched receiving a warm welcome when returning to her homeland to enjoy Tet festival after two years. She also planned to visit the city and other localities.
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Foreign tourists taking photo at an event to welcome 2023 |
Florian Deichman from Germany, another passenger of flight VN30, shared that he was moved when receiving the gift. He always considers Ho Chi Minh City as his second homeland and will definitely take his family to Vietnam.
Talking to the press, Deputy Chairman of Ho Chi Minh Municipal People’s Committee Duong Anh Duc held that the welcome ceremony was to showcase the friendly culture and hospitality of the city’s people, contributing to leaving good impression on the first visitors to the locality in 2023. The city will introduce more tourism activities to tourists, not only in the city but also in other localities nationwide, he added.
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Foreign tourists to Ho Chi Minh City on the first days of 2023 |
The number of foreign visitors to Ho Chi Minh City in 2022 reached nearly 3.5 million people, increasing 100% against 2021 and reaching 99% of the plan for 2022. The city's tourism sector will focus on implementing the development strategy with many practical solutions such as promoting communications for destinations and accelerating the “Welcome to Ho Chi Minh City" program. The city aims to welcome 5 million foreign visitors and 35 million domestic ones this year.
Translated by Trung Thanh