VietNamNet Bridge – Though the number of foreign tourists to HCM City is increasing year after year, there are not enough quality guidebooks and maps listing interesting tourism spots, services, and amusement places.

Self-guided: Foreign tourists look at souvenirs and books on Viet Nam at HCM City's War Remnants Museum.

Representatives of tourism companies, museums, publishers in the city, who attended a seminar to mark the 39th anniversary of the city's War Remnants Museum last weekend, raised the issue while discussing the publication of e-books for tourists.

Nguyen Tuan Viet, a journalist who also works for a publisher, said without good tourism guidebooks on HCM City, most foreign tourists rely to Lonely Planet.

He suggested that tourism companies should join hands with publishers to create guidebooks, which would be helpful not only for foreign tourists but also local travellers.

Prof Dr Ha Minh Hong, dean of the HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities's History Faculty, concurred, saying that guidebooks should be updated to reflect the city as it is now and adding that the materials would also help in tourism promotion.

Huynh Ngoc Van, director of the War Remnants Museum, said tourism booklets are important tools for travel companies and countries to provide information to tourists.

Australian traveller Peter Hargreaves, a visitor at the museum who had been in HCM City for three days, told Viet Nam News that it was his first trip to Viet Nam and he was here on his own and without a guide.

He had bought the DK Eyewitness Travel Guide for information about HCM City and Viet Nam prior to the trip with his wife.

"I have not bought any maps or guidebooks in Viet Nam," he added.

VNS/VNN