The 17th International Travel Expo Ho Chi Minh City 2023 (ITE HCMC 2023) opened in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday morning, commencing a host of activities to promote trade and tourism in Vietnam.

The expo opening, scheduled to take place from Thursday to Saturday, gathered senior officials from the Cambodian Ministry of Tourism, the Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, the Tourism Authority of Thailand, as well as 3,500 delegates from 45 provinces and cities across Vietnam and 42 countries and regions.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the travel trade fair, chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Phan Van Mai said the local tourism industry has rebounded significantly post-pandemic.

During the first eight months of 2023, Ho Chi Minh City served close to 25 million tourist arrivals, equivalent to 63 percent of the pre-pandemic figure in 2019, and earned more than VND100 trillion (US$4.1 billion) in tourism revenue, with some three million of them international visitors.

Vietnam welcomed more than 87 million tourist arrivals during the January-August period, equal to 70 percent of the 2019 figure, with total tourism sales exceeding VND482 trillion ($20 billion).

Of the total, the Southeast Asian nation served 7.8 million international visitors, some 5.4-fold higher than last year.

These impressive outcomes were partly attributed to the international tourism cooperation among countries and territories, as well as the ITE HCMC versions that have facilitated the growth of foreign arrivals to the country, the municipal chairman said.

The ITE HCMC 2023 will feature multiple forums and seminars, such as the ‘High-level Tourism Forum: Digital Transformation in Tourism Development,' a seminar on tourism and hospitality, the fourth ASEAN public relations and communications conference, and others.

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