Exploiting the "gold mine" of medical tourism in the eastern area of ​​Ho Chi Minh City

After the merger, the eastern area of ​​Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Ba Ria - Vung Tau) attracts 5-6 million visitors per year, possessing great potential for health tourism. However, the services are only limited to spontaneous "healing". Proper investment will open up opportunities to build a high-quality, classy medical tourism center.

Stop at healing

Mr. Tran Nhat Minh, living in Saigon ward, Ho Chi Minh city, shared that at least once a month his family has a beach trip , sometimes to Ho Tram beach, Long Hai beach, sometimes to Vung Tau to swim, relax in the sand, and immerse themselves in the fresh natural air.

Many tourists believe that soaking in sea water and covering themselves with sand will cure bone and joint diseases.

According to Mr. Minh, work pressure often makes him stressed. When he returns to the beach, lying on the sand helps him calm down and is also a therapy to soothe his soul, contributing to the healing of bone and joint diseases.

"Vung Tau beach is very clean and fresh. When I come here, besides playing and visiting places, I also soak in the sea and cover my body with sand. These are very good therapies for health. I feel my health has improved through my actual experiences at the beach," Minh shared.

Similarly, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Hoa, 82 years old, in Dak Lak said that for many years she had muscle weakness and difficulty walking.

Being advised to swim in the sea and apply sand to help bones and joints recover well, she moved from Dak Lak to Vung Tau to live with her children for convenience in going to the beach to swim.

More and more tourists are coming to the beaches to heal.

Ms. Hoa said, like a miracle, after more than 2 months in Vung Tau, every day at 6am, Ms. Hoa was taken by her son to the beach to swim and apply sand, combined with other treatments, Ms. Hoa can now walk.

"Before, my legs hurt so much that I couldn't walk. If I tried to walk, someone had to support me or I would fall. For the past two months, I've been swimming in the sea and applying sand regularly, so my health has improved a lot," Ms. Hoa added.

From 'healing' to intensive medical tourism

According to tourism experts, currently the Eastern region of Ho Chi Minh City only stops at health care and healing tours... not specialized medical tourism.

Tourism experts say that to develop this type of tourism combined with intensive medical treatment, it is necessary to have thorough investment such as infrastructure and equipment to ensure standards of treatment and health care.

In addition, there is a need for human resources with expertise in nutritional medicine. The local health system must also transform and change towards high-quality services.

Ms. Phan Yen Ly, representative of the tourism organization, said that health care tourism does not include many activities of traveling and visiting destinations, but is designed with physical, psychological or spiritual activities to improve health, heal the body and mind, and refresh the body.

The East of Ho Chi Minh City has thousands of hectares of primeval forest suitable for the health care tourism segment.

The eastern area of ​​Ho Chi Minh City has a long coastline, clean sand beaches and thousands of hectares of primeval forest ecosystems... so this area can focus on developing the health care segment.

"That is to say, it would not be medical tourism to have many specialized medical activities, which is a bit far from the tourism industry. Therefore, we can focus on health care tourism with available natural conditions: sea, sand, sun and natural herbal resources from the forest ecosystem as well as the hot spring system."

The first Congress of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee for the 2025-2030 term determined that the human development index (HDI) will be above 0.8. By 2030, the city strives to have 35.1 hospital beds per 10,000 people, 21 doctors per 10,000 people and 35 nurses per 10,000 people. From 2026, people will receive free periodic health check-ups or screenings at least once a year and will have an electronic health record to manage their health over their life cycle.

Mr. Nguyen Tan Ban, Secretary of the Vung Tau Ward Party Committee, said that the locality still has many planned lands for healthcare purposes. According to the general direction of the Central Government as well as the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, these lands will serve healthcare and health care purposes.

Le Loi Hospital, Vung Tau Ward

Vung Tau Ward has worked with the City's Departments and branches to bring the old Le Loi Hospital land and some areas with commercial service planning to serve the community.

"In the near future, we will propose to the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee to add these lands to resort tourism. In particular, tourism for the elderly includes nursing homes and health care services for residents and visitors. We aim to combine tourism with good health for residents and at the same time exploit more tourism products in the area," Mr. Ban added.

Clean sandy beaches and long coastlines are where tourists from all over come to heal.

According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, with medical tourism products, the city will focus on the mid-range and high-end tourist market segment to increase experiences, extend length of stay and increase spending levels, combining resort tourism with medical tourism.

Along with that, hospitals, medical facilities, travel agencies, accommodation establishments, standard services, etc. must proactively research, build, innovate and introduce attractive medical and healthcare service packages to attract more tourists to experience high-class medical services.

The plan to develop medical tourism in the East is also part of the overall strategy to improve the quality of healthcare and the human development index (HDI) of Ho Chi Minh City in the coming period.

Source: https://bvhttdl.gov.vn/khai-thac-mo-vang-du-lich-y-te-o-khu-vuc-phia-dong-tphcm-20251022094835956.htm