Two foreign firms -- one from Germany and the other from Indonesia -- will participate in mapping out a strategy for the development of tourism in HCMC, Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper reported, citing the city's Department of Tourism.

Foreign tourists are seen in downtown HCMC. McKinsey Indonesia and management consulting company Roland Berger in Germany will take part in a project to draw up “The HCMC Tourism Development Strategy until 2030" 

A department source said that McKinsey Indonesia and management consulting company Roland Berger in Germany will take part in drawing up “The HCMC Tourism Development Strategy until 2030.” The department is in the process of gathering documents and completing dossiers for proving these firms’ financial capacity, and will soon report to the HCMC government, the source said.

The department is speeding up the progress of working with the relevant agencies so that the draft strategy could go before the city government soon. The strategy is slated for completion in the third quarter.

Many firms are seeking new, signature tourism products and have faced difficulties in creating fresh tourism products and determining development orientations, due to there being no existing tourism strategy.

Apart from this, the city lagged behind other localities in forming a tourism strategy. As such, a general tourism plan and strategy for the city’s tourism development should be urgently drawn up.

The municipal Department of Tourism confirmed that the task of building the strategy had lagged behind schedule.

The city saw international tourist arrivals rising to over 2.25 million in the first quarter of 2019, reaching 27% of the year’s plan. HCMC earned an estimated VND40,000 billion from the tourism sector, including travel, hotel and restaurant services, in the first three months.

In 2019, the city looks to attract 8.5 million international tourists and 32.7 million domestic visitors.

SGT