Leaders of HCMC and 13 Southern provinces and cities attend the conference. (Photo: SGGP)
Speaking at the event, Director of the HCMC Department of Tourism Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa said that since its launch in 2019, the tourism cooperation programs between the city and major tourism areas across the country have been implemented effectively, including the tourism cooperation between HCMC and 13 Southern provinces and cities.
However, the pandemic badly hit the socio-economy, especially the tourism sector that is among those harmed the most by the disease. The total number of tourists visiting HCMC in 2020 was more than 17 million, presenting a decrease of over 66 percent. In which, there was 1.3 million foreign travelers, declined nearly 85 percent compared to the previous period.
Vice Chairwoman of the HCMC People’s Committee Phan Thi Thang speaks at the event.
The Mekong Delta region received 27.7 million people, dropped more than 41 percent compared to the same period, and earned VND21,879 billion (US$961 million) in revenue from tourism, fallen by 48 percent compared to the previous period.
According to Deputy General Director of Saigontourist Group Vo Anh Tai, although several locations have potentials to become tourist destinations, they are facing problems of transport infrastructure and human resource while tourist facilities and services that do not meet standards.
The localities and relevant departments need to cooperate to build a set of safety assessment criteria for tourism to create an advantage for tourist activities in the region, he suggested.
In addition, experts suggested that provinces and cities must have a mechanism for tourism investment, focus on exploiting major tourist areas and providing local special tourist products.
Deputy Minister of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Doan Van Viet
Vice Chairwoman of the HCMC People’s Committee Phan Thi Thang said that the reopening of domestic and international tourism activities is a golden chance for HCMC and the Mekong Delta region to recover their tourism industry.
Deputy Minister of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Doan Van Viet asked localities to actively prepare response plans for the safe reopening of tourism, strengthen the implementation of upgrading projects of transport infrastructure in order to expand the domestic and international tourist markets, promote travel businesses in connecting destinations of the region, and pay attention to develop local and international direct air routes from Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul and Taipei to Can Tho Airport.
Provinces, cities and travel agents also agreed with each other to carry out an agreement on promoting localities’ strong points and creating favorable conditions for the tourism development.
14 localities signed a regulation on coordinating to implement the linkage in tourism development between HCMC and 13 Southern provinces and cities.
Leaders of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, HCMC, Mekong Delta provinces and cities kick off the plan on reopening tourism activities.
