Take advantage of the river’s strength
Ho Chi Minh City’s tourism industry has just continued to survey river tourist routes to prepare for the launch of a new tour “Saigon River Cruise” after the success of the tour “See Ho Chi Minh City from above by Helicopter”. The route of this tour starts from Bach Dang Wharf (District 1) – Phu My bridge – Red light area (District 7) and reverses to watch the sunset, Thu Thiem 2 bridge, Binh Loi bridge – Binh Thanh district. It is expected that many cruise companies will participate in exploiting the product “Saigon River Cruise” with the price of about 5-10 million VND/pax for 3 hours with about 10-25 people/trip, starting point at Lan Anh villa marina (Binh An ward, Thu Duc city). In particular, this luxury yacht tour product will target the middle and high-class segments and meet the diverse needs of tourists for novel travel services.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa, Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, said that the tourism potential of Ho Chi Minh City is very diverse and rich. Currently, the city’s tourism industry is diversifying the viewing of Ho Chi Minh City by many different means. If the tour of Ho Chi Minh City by river bus, speedboat is familiar to tourists, recently the tourism industry continues to introduce products to see Ho Chi Minh City from above by helicopter and next will be products to see Ho Chi Minh City by boat on the Saigon River.
“We hope that with the efforts of the tourism industry, visitors will feel the love and desire to welcome visitors to Ho Chi Minh City. In particular, businesses continue to accompany state management agencies to have more novel products and exploit the beauty and potential of the city in the coming time,” said Ms. Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa. speak.
According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa, Ho Chi Minh City has very different strengths compared to other large cities in the country as well as in the world. “We have a dense river system; this advantage is coordinated by the tourism industry and the transportation industry to organize many tours such as inner-city yacht routes, short-range and mid-range routes by river bus, high-speed boat In the near future, we will coordinate with businesses to introduce short and medium-range tours and connect neighboring countries by yacht.We believe that tourists will feel satisfied, especially international guests. when Vietnam has completely opened up to tourism,” said Ms. Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa.
Currently, the development of waterway tourism is one of the important contents in the City’s tourism development strategy to 2030, a tourism product that is evaluated as attractive and has potential for development. It is a big and strong point of Ho Chi Minh City’s tourism industry. Waterborne tourism products are developed based on exploiting the advantages of the river and canal system connecting tourist attractions in Ho Chi Minh City and connecting Ho Chi Minh City with provinces bordering the city such as Dong Nai and Dong Nai. Nai, Binh Duong, Ba Ria – Vung Tau, Tien Giang, Long An, Ben Tre and neighboring countries. Accordingly, Ho Chi Minh City has also put into operation a number of river tourism routes including: Bach Dang – District 7, Bach Dang – Binh Quoi, Bach Dang – Cu Chi, watching the sunset on Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe river by rowing boat,
Lots of room for growth
As a unit that is exploiting a number of tourist routes on the Saigon River, a representative of Saigontourist Company said that river tourism is being developed by Ho Chi Minh City but has not yet brought about high efficiency. Compared to other types of tourism in Ho Chi Minh City, the number of visitors and income from this city is still low, while the exploitation process faces many challenges and does not really bring interesting experiences to visitors.
“In order to build luxury tourism products on the Saigon River, it is necessary to focus on building key river tours; continue to invest in waterway tourism infrastructure, ensure ports and water quality. In addition, local units and agencies must actively propagate the community’s awareness of coastal tourism and raise people’s awareness people in maintaining environmental hygiene, helping people understand that they also benefit greatly from this tourism product…”, a representative of Saigontourist said.
Meanwhile, sharing about the potential of the upcoming luxury yacht tour, Mr. Nguyen Minh Man, Director of Communications – Marketing of TST Tourist company, said that luxury yacht tours are very potential in the future. attracting customers, because this is a new high-class product. For a long time, people have wanted to see the Saigon River, but there are quite a few services to serve this need, so the introduction of luxury tours will help exploit and meet the demand for seeing beautiful landscapes. On both sides of the Saigon River at sunset and when the city lights up, it will be very shimmering and fanciful.
“I highly appreciate this type of tourism because it not only creates attractive products with typical characteristics of Ho Chi Minh City but also contributes to positioning and stimulating the creativity of travel businesses in tourism. developing new tourism products that are attractive, unique and novel right in Ho Chi Minh City – where there are still a lot of resources and opportunities for development, we are also completing the facilities. , human resources and prepare to build tours like this to offer to tourists in the near future,” said Mr. Nguyen Minh Man.
“The Saigon River has many beautiful landscapes to put into tourism exploitation, but we have not fully exploited these landscapes. Therefore, for Ho Chi Minh City to form a quality river tourism product. With high quality, meeting the needs of tourists, it is necessary to renew thinking, integrate cultural factors into tourism to exude the typical culture of old Saigon, help diversify waterway tourism products. In addition, Ho Chi Minh City should also pay attention to the role of businesses, have many policies to attract investment and encourage travel businesses to exploit river tours more. The investment cost for a luxury yacht tour is not small,” said Ms. Tran Thi Bao Thu, Marketing and Communication Director of Fiditour – Vietluxtour Travel Company.
Source: Baotintuc.vn
Source: Vietnam Insider