Advice on exploiting new tourism resources in Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City possesses 681 resources that can be exploited to become a tourist destination attracting both domestic and foreign visitors. The business community, based on understanding market demand and surveying tourist tastes, has advised the City to develop potential areas such as special economic zones and suburban areas by diversifying means of transportation, products, and services connecting the regions.

Tourists visit Ho Chi Minh City by double-decker bus. Photo: Hoang Tuyet/Tin Tuc and Dan Toc Newspaper

Inner city needs to open pick-up and drop-off points

Noting the opinions of many businesses, Ho Chi Minh City Tourism needs to promptly organize tourism promotion programs, adjust planning to serve the development of the industry in the new context, build rest stops on highways... to enhance connectivity and create attraction for the inner-city destination network. Currently, not only domestic tourism and travel businesses, but also foreign partners and investors are interested in many issues in the supply chain of Ho Chi Minh City Tourism such as traffic, pick-up and drop-off points on central routes, training local tourism human resources, regional connectivity, and orientation to develop the city into a tourist center with many destinations, modern and sustainable for the whole country, as well as the region.

According to Ms. Lieu Thi My Hanh, CEO of Les Rives Joint Stock Company, the company has recently invested in 17 canoes for river tourism. Besides favorable conditions, the company still faces challenges in the process of developing this type of tourism because in the city before and after the merger, localities have potential river branches that can exploit river tourism but there are no public wharves or very few wharves that can pick up and drop off river passengers. Some tourism - travel businesses operating in Con Dao special zone shared that the tourism market faces many challenges such as high service prices, workers in the tourism industry operating without professional certificates, along with speculation on airfare prices...

In order to solve the problem of "picking up and dropping off passengers" in the inner city of Ho Chi Minh City, Ms. Ngo Chanh Nga, Director of Xuyen Moc Ho Tram Ecotourism Development Company, proposed that the tourism industry should soon study and establish a public bus route from Ho Tram ward to Vung Tau ward, with operating hours from 6 to 22 hours/day. With this solution, we can both exploit and introduce the natural beauty of the coastal route to tourists and save costs for tourists and local people. Enterprises are ready to participate in the investment if the government approves the policy of encouraging enterprises to deploy it themselves.

Meanwhile, Ms. Huynh Phan Phuong Hoang, Deputy General Director of Vietravel Tourism Company, suggested that with diverse new resources and a large market, Ho Chi Minh City's tourism industry should soon complete typical product groups and organize them according to the axis of linked experiences. In addition, the city's tourism industry can develop products according to each axis, applying a controlled testing mechanism (sandbox) to promote destinations, especially new resources that domestic and foreign tourists have not previously identified as destinations in the city.

Urban "retains" residents and tourists

From the perspective of a promotion unit, Mr. Tran Phu Lu, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Investment and Trade Promotion Center (ITPC), pointed out that the merger of localities opens up many new potentials for the industry such as expanding development space, diversifying tourism products and strengthening regional connectivity. This is also an important opportunity for the city to reorganize the tourism ecosystem in a synchronous, modern direction and in line with the orientation of long-term sustainable development. Notably, if investing in transport infrastructure and tourism support services, it will create favorable conditions to attract socialized resources and improve connectivity between destinations.

In addition to the clear opportunities, the Ho Chi Minh City tourism industry in the new period also requires improving adaptive capacity, enhancing management efficiency and maximizing existing potential. This requires synchronous and close coordination between the government and the business community in effectively utilizing resources, developing tourism in a sustainable and in-depth direction, thereby enhancing the city's position on the regional tourism map.

Regarding the exploitation of tourism resource potential, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Thao, Head of the Department of Planning and Development of Tourism Resources of Ho Chi Minh City, said that the city's tourism industry has been focusing on promoting a group of solutions for developing products, resources, brands, promoting, training human resources, regional linkages... with a focus on research and product development. On the other hand, the City's Department of Tourism is urgently repositioning the tourism development strategy to 2030, including brand positioning, core tourism values, and a system of typical products... Of which, there are 6 groups of products including: festivals and events; waterway tourism; products related to the city's cultural values; night tourism products; products related to agricultural, ecological, and community tourism...

Recently, the City Pulse 2025 Report of the Gensler Research Institute announced that Ho Chi Minh City is in the group of cities that "retain" residents best in the world with the top 2 position and this confirms that Ho Chi Minh City is a city that "retains residents" well, consolidating the image of a livable - dynamic - residential city, very favorable for attracting investors, experts, and MICE guests. Therefore, early integration of this information into communication strategies, urban planning and tourism product development will increase global competitiveness, contributing to promoting the goal of building Ho Chi Minh City into an international service - tourism city rich in identity and humanity.

To realize the goal of sustainable tourism development, as well as becoming the best “resident retention” city in the world, Mr. Le Truong Hien Hoa, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, said that the Department will continue to coordinate with other sectors to expand green spaces, develop the river transport system, accelerate the completion of the metro network; at the same time, effectively utilize existing infrastructure such as Nguyen Hue walking street to organize a variety of cultural - artistic - entertainment activities, serving both residents and tourists, thereby improving the quality of “urban experience”. Thereby, the tourism industry develops sustainably in association with the orientation of building a green city, Ho Chi Minh City tourism is shifting strongly to developing eco-tourism and sustainable tourism models.

On the business side, the business community is encouraged to gradually form environmentally friendly and socially responsible tourism products, in which preserving identity and promoting cultural values are also given top priority.

According to VNA

Source: https://bvhttdl.gov.vn/hien-ke-khai-thac-tai-nguyen-du-lich-moi-tai-thanh-pho-ho-chi-minh-20250730081453369.htm