Promoting Vietnam-Ho Chi Minh City tourism at ITB Asia International Travel Fair, Singapore 2023

From October 25 to 27, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism coordinated with the Vietnamese Embassy in Singapore to organize a program to promote Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City tourism at the ITB Asia International Travel Fair, Singapore.

International visitors look for information at the booth of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism in Singapore. Photo: SGGP Newspaper)

The International Travel Trade Fair Asia (ITB Asia 2023) has the participation of more than 80 tourism agencies and organizations along with more than 1,800 international and regional exhibitors and exhibitors, in which Vietnam has actively participated with many booths of provinces/cities and leading travel and tourism businesses. Attending the ITB Asia Travel Fair this year, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism coordinated with the Vietnamese Embassy in Singapore to organize a booth to promote Vietnam tourism in general and Ho Chi Minh City in particular to Singapore and regional tourism businesses, creating opportunities for exchanges, meetings, and promoting trade connections. Also participating in the exhibition booth to introduce and promote Vietnam tourism at ITB Asia this year are Binh Phuoc province, Da Nang city, and leading Vietnamese airlines and travel businesses. This is the second time the Ho Chi Minh City tourism industry has participated in the Asia International Exhibition Fair in Singapore. A total of 16 businesses participated in this exhibition to introduce hotel services, tours, cuisine , experiences, and top resort attractions in Ho Chi Minh City and its tourism-linked regions. With the strong tourism recovery momentum, with tourism revenue in 2022 exceeding that of 2019, the time before the pandemic, Ho Chi Minh City determined that it was necessary to promote promotion, with the Southeast Asian and Northeast Asian markets being key markets that need to attract visitors. Mr. Le Truong Hien Hoa, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, said that coming to ITB Asia this year, the Ho Chi Minh City Tourism industry has great expectations, which is to continue to promote the Southeast Asian market together with Vietnamese businesses. This is the second time the Ho Chi Minh City Tourism industry has participated in ITB Asia, and expanded the booth space, interaction space with businesses in other countries, and the number of participating businesses has also increased to 16 compared to 7 last year. According to Mr. Le Truong Hien Hoa, Singapore is one of the important tourist markets for Ho Chi Minh City in particular and Vietnam in general. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam welcomed nearly 310,000 Singaporean visitors and in 2022, Vietnam welcomed 178,861 visitors. In Ho Chi Minh City alone, the total number of Singaporean visitors in 2019 reached nearly 290,000; in 2022, this number will be 114,000, accounting for about 3.3% of the total number of international visitors to Ho Chi Minh City. The Singapore market has great growth potential and has always been in the top 10 tourist markets to Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City in recent years.

Mr. Le Truong Hien Hoa, hopes that this will be the premise for Ho Chi Minh City and large enterprises to continue to expand their booths next year. Ho Chi Minh City considers this a very important market to attract not only international visitors, but also an opportunity to update new trends in world tourism.

Ho Chi Minh City tourism industry booth in Singapore. Photo: NLĐ

On the first day of the exhibition, Vietnam's booths attracted many visitors to visit and exchange information to seek cooperation opportunities in this potential field. Mr. Poh Chi Chuan, Director of Conventions and Exhibitions, Singapore Tourism Board, assessed that tourism in both Singapore and Vietnam is growing healthily and I see Vietnamese culture, cuisine and natural landscapes as Vietnam's strengths, making Vietnam attractive and attracting tourists from all over the world. In addition, it attracts foreign visitors, those who are studying and working in Singapore and visitors to Singapore, then to Vietnam.

Here, Mr. Mai Phuoc Dung, Ambassador of Vietnam to Singapore, hopes that through this participation, he will attract more visitors to Vietnam and hopes that through this opportunity, he will learn a lot of experience in Singapore in organizing MICE events. This is a great strength of Singapore.

This year's Asia International Travel Expo took place with a record number of participants, with 1,838 international travel companies, an increase of 35% compared to 2022, with the participation of 80 national and regional tourism organizations.

The promotion of Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City tourism in Singapore will take place until October 27. At the program, Ho Chi Minh City also designed a display booth to promote the destination from tourist items such as USBs, wooden cards, cloth bags, conical hats, Ho Chi Minh City travel guides and Vietnamese coffee... Guests will also experience traditional handicraft activities such as making figurines and folding coconut leaves./.

Yanjiang