Ho Chi Minh City's water festival 'unprecedentedly big'

Returning for the second time with a scale "many times larger" than its debut last year, the Ho Chi Minh City River Festival 2024 (from May 31 to June 9) not only aims to continue promoting the city's economic development but also takes on the responsibility of breathing life into the Saigon River, preserving and promoting the lifestyle, culture, and precious heritage of the river.

Sprint for the biggest festival ever

"All preparations are being rushed for the opening day of the second Ho Chi Minh City River Festival. All departments and offices are focusing all their resources and time. The workload is huge. It feels like there is no time to breathe," an official from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism told Thanh Nien last weekend. This is the second year Ho Chi Minh City has organized the River Festival, but the work is still busy and "tense as a bowstring" because the scale of this year's program is much larger than last year. If last year the festival only lasted 3 days, this year it will last 10 days. Not only focusing on the Nha Rong Wharf area or Nhieu Loc - Thi Nghe canal, this year's series of activities will be distributed in many locations such as Nha Rong Khanh Hoi Area - Saigon Port, Bach Dang Wharf Park, Saigon Riverside Park, Nhieu Loc - Thi Nghe canal area, Viet Star Wharf (District 7), Binh Dong Wharf (District 8), Suoi Tien Cultural Tourism Area, and other tourist areas and destinations in Thu Duc City as well as throughout the city's districts and counties.

The 2023 Ho Chi Minh City River Festival has attracted the attention of many people and tourists.

Nhat Thinh

According to the representative of the Department of Tourism, the highlight of this year's event is the special art program "The River Tells Stories" season 2 with the theme "The Legendary Train" which will take place at 8:00 - 9:30 pm on May 31 at Nha Rong Khanh Hoi Area - Saigon Port. If in season 1, "The River Tells Stories" is a panoramic cultural picture of Gia Dinh - Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City through hundreds of years of history, is the nostalgia of memories along the river and down the stream of history, then "The Legendary Train" season 2 will tell modern historical stories that took place right on this flow through the chapters: Launching, Arriving, Setting sail, Making waves, Going far. That is the story of special trains that have come and gone on the Saigon River, historical trains associated with important milestones of the nation. Those were also the first Vietnamese ships launched, the ships that set sail carrying the fate of the entire nation, the resounding battles on the river, the ships that reunited after decades of separation, the ships that brought Vietnamese brands to all 5 continents...

The main theme of this year's festival is "Legendary Train", to convey the profound message from this theme, from the heroic historical stories of the nation, so that today's young generations love history more and be proud of their ancestors' traditions. In order for that history to go beyond geographical limits, to reach more and more international audiences, the Ho Chi Minh City River Festival has been carefully and seriously researched and invested in on a large scale to convey the message in an attractive and appealing way, aiming to honor noble values, foster love for the homeland and country, affirm the direction of the city's cultural industry development, bring values ​​to tourism - economy and culture - society .

Mr. Nguyen Van Dung , Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee

Attracting tourists from all over to Saigon River

According to statistics, up to now, more than 100 businesses have announced and applied preferential policies on prices and promotional programs for shopping services, food services, sightseeing, and tours for people and tourists at the Ho Chi Minh City River Festival 2024. In particular, there have been 15 famous brands providing electronic vouchers with discounts of up to 50% with unlimited quantity for airlines, to apply to passengers flying to Ho Chi Minh City during the event. Mr. Pham Anh Vu, Marketing Director of Viet Tourism Media Joint Stock Company, said that 100% of tourists are members of inter-provincial groups with schedules to stay in Ho Chi Minh City during the festival, all requesting to design a tour program that includes experiencing part of the festival's events. Currently, this business is including in the tour program activities such as: Re-enacting the Western floating market and the fruit festival on the wharf and under the boat along with other activities or inner-city tours for groups of guests. In particular, the opening day with a grand musical is attracting great attention from the city's people. The information portal for registering tickets to attend the festival's opening event, which opened on May 22, was quickly fully booked. Mr. Pham Anh Vu commented that tourists always tend to experience new tourist attractions and new tours. If in the past, city tours were simply understood to include central relic clusters such as Independence Palace, Notre Dame Cathedral, Post Office , War Remnants Museum... next to Cu Chi, Can Gio... and almost only traveled by road tourist vehicles, now tourism products in the city are very diverse in terms of tour routes, tour products, especially river products. "The second River Festival, with the current large-scale investment and preparation, will certainly attract many times more visitors than last year. The city's river tour and inner-city tour products are gradually proving their increasing appeal to domestic and foreign tourists. Travel businesses always hope that from the success of the event, the tours built and promoted here will be the premise for businesses to have a set of products to exploit at all times of the year. This will support and have an impact on input service providers such as bus companies, restaurants, and hotels to stabilize service quality all year round, not during peak seasons like now," Mr. Vu expected. Mr. Nguyen Minh Man, Head of Communications - Marketing Department of TST Tourist, also assessed that the Ho Chi Minh City River Festival, held right after the Bread Festival, during the low tourist season, will be an opportunity for the city's tourism industry to diversify products and attract visitors all year round. According to Mr. Man, the goal of building Ho Chi Minh City into a festival city is having very precise directions and steps. Rivers are advantages, resources, heritages of Ho Chi Minh City and also beautiful materials to build highlights for city tourism. Once there are highlights, promotion and advertising work is an extremely important factor. Ho Chi Minh City tourism has developed mainly thanks to transient visitors and self-sufficient visitors from many countries. Therefore, the city also needs to determine to focus on promoting to attract this group of visitors. For example, it is possible to organize press trips, farm trips to invite international reporters, international travel businesses, consular agencies, counselors, cultural attachés... from many markets to the River Festival. We can learn from Thailand's way of turning the Songkran Festival from a traditional New Year into a "tourist whirlwind". That means we have to communicate to the world that in Ho Chi Minh City, every May - June there will be an extremely "top", extremely large, extremely professional River Festival, so that tourists can plan to attend and experience it. "From the perspective of those working in tourism, we are really happy that the river has been brought back to life in its true sense. The river element is being mentioned more and more, and is being focused on more and more to exploit its economic values. When activities with concentrated elements are organized, each individual will have the awareness to protect the river, and contribute to bringing the river deeper into the economic and historical development process of Ho Chi Minh City", Mr. Nguyen Minh Man shared.

The online registration portal for residents and visitors to attend the Opening Art Program has officially opened at the website visithcmc.vn since May 22. Electronic tickets with QR codes will be sent directly via email after everyone provides complete and accurate personal information. The event will welcome delegates, residents and visitors to attend the program at gate number 157 Nguyen Tat Thanh, Ward 18, District 4.

Ha Mai - Thanhnien.vn

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/le-hoi-song-nuoc-tphcm-lon-chua-tung-co-185240524195651941.htm