Ho Chi Minh City aims to welcome six million foreign arrivals in 2024
VOV.VN - Ho Chi Minh City's tourism industry aims to receive six million international visitors next year, one million more than this year’s figure, according to the municipal Department of Tourism.
The department said the southern city welcomed more than 4.1 million foreign visitors between Jan. - Oct. 2023, meeting 82% of the set plan. However, tourism recovery rate is yet to reach the pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
The city, the most populous in Vietnam, has set a target of receiving five million foreign visitors this year thanks to a new visa policy of granting e-visas to all foreign arrivals at 52 ports of entry from August 15, 2023.
Despite removing the bottlenecks relating to e-visas have been removed, industry insiders say the visa granting remains slow and is time consuming.
Compared to other countries throughout the region, the number of countries eligible for visa exemption from Vietnam remains limited, a factor that has prompted visitors from key markets to destinations in regional peers such as Thailand and Singapore instead of those in Vietnam.
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism has proposed creating more conditions for travel businesses to welcome large international tourist groups to Vietnam, and shorten the visa processing time for these groups.
Furthermore, travel firms are required to step up tourism promotions in key and traditional international markets such as Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, Western Europe, North America, Australia, India, and the Middle East.
