Vietnam’s southern hub Ho Chi Minh City welcomed 4.66 million foreign travelers during the January-October period this year, up 12.9 percent year on year, the municipal Department of Tourism announced on Thursday.

This figure of international arrivals accounted for 77.7 percent of the year’s plan, the department reported. 

The city also received nearly 31 million domestic tourists in the period, up 1.3 percent from a year earlier.

In October alone, 647,000 foreign travelers and 3.5 million domestic tourists visited the city, representing an increase of 16.6 percent and 1.2 percent from the same month last year, respectively.  

With these encouraging growths, the city’s tourism sector earned VND16.25 trillion ($642.71 million) in revenue in October, marking a year-on-year rise of 11.4 percent and bringing the total earnings over the past 10 months to VND156.6 trillion ($6.19 billion), or an 11.9 percent surge.

Such high tourism revenue was partly attributed to strong performances of key markets such as South Korea, Japan, and Europe, coupled with improved tourism service quality and promotion programs in the city, according to the department.

Ho Chi Minh City has promoted its image through various international events and fairs, including the Asia International Travel Trade Show (ITB Asia) 2024 in Singapore from October 23-25.

The tourism department is currently developing preferential policies to attract more international MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) groups to the southern largest economic hub.

To attract more visitors in the rest of the year, the department will coordinate with concerned agencies to prepare for the fourth annual Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Week from December 1-8.

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