At 11 am, Thuong, in a sweaty shirt, stood under the eaves, took a few sips of water in a hurry, and then ran towards the entrance door of the trade fair. The officer at the Suoi Tien Tourism Complex was having a busy working day receiving guests visiting the Southern Fruit Festival. 

Twenty-five days after opening on June 1, the largest fruit festival in the country had attracted 250,000 visitors. As of June 25, over 350 tons of fruits had been sold at the trade fair, equal to the sales in 2019.

Analysts, however, note that the number of visitors to festivals in 2017, 2018 and 2019 was 1 million a year in the three summer months. This year’s festival season is expected to last from June 1 to August 31. 

The Suoi Tien Tourism Complex predicts that the number of visitors to the festival will be  80-90 percent of that in 2018.

The Southern Fruit Festival is one example showing tourism recovering in HCM City. A recent report from the HCM City Statistics Office found that in the first six months of 2023, travel revenue in HCM City reached VND4.8 trillion, up 78.5 percent over the same period last year, while revenue from accommodation services rose by 42.5 percent with the number of travelers served up by 136 percent and the number of days served up 96 percent.

According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), HCM City led the country in terms of revenue from tourism in the first half of the year, followed by Hanoi, Thanh Hoa, Quang Ninh and Khanh Hoa.

A representative of Du Lich Viet said nearly all international air routes have resumed. In the first six months of the year, the firm served 5,000 tours with 110,000 travelers (domestic travelers accounted for 40 percent). 

The outbound tours to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore had high growth rates. To date, it has provided outbound tours to 30 countries and served 5 percent of foreign travelers from Israel, Australia, India and Indonesia.

“The e-visa will help boost inbound tourism. It will be the leverage that helps boost tourism in the last six months of the year,” the representative said.

TSTtourist said the firm is serving many groups of tourists from India, Thailand and Europe. The expansion of e-visas, increase of length of stay, and upgrading of products and services will increase the number of travelers. 

Also, the recognition by Michelin of restaurants will highlight Vietnamese cuisine.

The improvement in tourism indexes in the first six months of the year was aided by HCM City’s tourism promotion activities. Shortly after tourism reopened, the city launched a "one district, one typical tourism product program". To date, HCMC has 60 more new tourism products or routes. 

Leaders of the HCM City’s Tourism Department recently carried out activities to advertise tourism in Bangkok and Phnom Penh. 

Bui Thi Ngoc Hieu, deputy director of the HCM City Tourism Department, said the geographical position of HCM City, plus the visa waiver policy for ASEAN members, will help HCM City - Phnom Penh become a favorite destination for tourists from the two countries.

A report from HSBC pointed out that Vietnam can easily obtain 8 million foreign travelers this year. According to Yun Liu from HSBC, the recovery is partially due to the increase in flight frequency. Also, the loosening of the visa policy will make Vietnam more attractive.

In the first six months of the year, Vietnam received 5.6 million travelers.

Ngoc Ha