The city’s tourism sector will expand operations to potential markets such as Norway, Sweden, India, Indonesia and South Africa, in addition to key markets, including the US, Canada, France, Japan, China and ASEAN.

The HCMC Tourism Department and the Tourism Association will coordinate with domestic airlines to conduct campaigns abroad to introduce the country’s history and traditional culture, and actively participate in international tourism fairs and forums.

A series of tourism promotion activities will be held in major cities across the country, namely Hanoi, Haiphong, Danang, Hue, Dalat, Nha Trang and Can Tho, to attract more local visitors to HCMC where boasts historical sites and worth seeing architectural works like Chu Chi tunnels, Thong Nhat Palace, Duc Ba Church and Giac Lam Pagoda.

In addition to improving service quality of existing tourism, the city will introduce new tours that combine tourism with high-quality medical check-ups and treatment, spa and traditional therapies.

In the first half of 2008, HCMC welcomed close to 1.5 million foreign tourists, a year-on-year rise of 16%. The figure is expected to reach 3 million by the year’s end.

The US ranked first in the number of visitors, followed by Canada, France, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, Singapore, China and Malaysia.

The city raked in around VND 14.6 trillion from tourism turnover during the reviewed period, up 40% from last year.