The HCMC People’s Committee plans to launch a project for the development of waterway tourism products for 2023 – 2035 that is expected to generate hundreds of billions of dong for the city.
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A boat race in the first HCMC River Festival (Photo: SGGP) |
Improving waterway tourism products
Accordingly, the city will exploit waterway tourism products in all routes on the Saigon River, such as Nha Be, Soai Rap, and Long Tau connecting with neighboring provinces, including Dong Nai, Binh Duong, Tien Giang, Long An, and Ben Tre, including inland routes in the city; and develop at least 10 waterway tours, tourism programs linking seaports and river routes by 2025.
It is estimated that the city will have hundreds of means of water transport by 2025, including 200 canoes, 100 boats, ships, cruise ships, and others.
The main tasks are the improvement of the quality of waterway tourism products in the 2023-2024 period, including short-distance routes of river tours and inland waterway tours with a radius of less than 10 kilometers; boat tours on Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe canal, and mid-distance tours with a radius from 10 kilometers to 60 kilometers to Cu Chi and Can Gio districts.
Additionally, the city will put importance on building a standard system of voice-over translation to provide information about waterway tourism routes, history, culture, and identities of the river and canal systems of the southern metropolis, and use geographic information system (GIS) technology for building detailed maps of waterway tourism routes and destinations on the routes.
Great potential
Ho Chi Minh City has a great potential for waterway tourism with about 1,000 km of rivers and canals running through historical sites and fruit gardens across the city. Travel companies, such as Saigontourist, Vietravel, Saco, TSTtourist, Chim Chanh Cut (Penguin) offer various water-way tours costing from VND599, 000 per person to give visitors a chance to explore cultural and historical sites, architectural works, and cuisine along river banks. In addition, the city often receives many cruise ships from Germany, the US, the UK, Australia, and others.
Mr. Nguyen Minh Man, marketing and communications director of TSTtourist said that many visitors contacted the company for information about waterway trips and art performances during the River Festival.
The Department of Transport of HCMC has launched a plan on developing riverside routes connecting the city and localities in the region and developing the economy of HCMC and neighboring provinces. The Transport Department has coordinated with the municipal Department of Planning and Architecture to check routes and ensure their feasibility. The departments agreed that roads will run along the Sai Gon River.
Riverside roads will help tourism and entertainment services at the river bank develop, contributing to the city’s waterway tourism development, Man said.
The city needs to strengthen destination advertising, build passenger piers, enhance a close connection between functional departments, ensure food safety and hygiene, and protect the environment, Director of Chim Canh Cut (penguin) Travel Joint Stock Company Tran Quang Duy said.
In the 2024-2025 period, the city will continuously promote historical relic sites, such as Cu Chi Tunnel, Can Gio Mangrove Biosphere Reserve to international visitors, tours visiting historical and cultural relic sites, traditional craft villages, fruit gardens, ecological tourist areas as well as strengthen tourism and entertainment services at the river bank and on river cruise ships.
The city plans to receive around 500,000 visitors a year from the waterway tourism program in the 2023-2024 period. This number is expected to be increased by 10 percent in the next years.
Revenue from waterway tourism is hoped to hit VND300 billion (US$12.6 million) per year in 2023 and 2024 and grow 10 percent in the coming years. The number of international cruise ship tourists arriving in the city will be 100,000 in 2023 and 2024 and grow 12-15 percent in the next years.
In 2023-2024, the cruise industry is expected to make VND500 billion (US$21 million) per year in revenue which is expected to increase by 12 percent in the coming years. The city is keen on developing waterway tourism into one of the types of tourism and tourist products that are different from others, contributing to the diversification of the city’s tourist products.
