Promoting Vietnam tourism to Singaporean and regional businesses

From October 25-27, the International Travel Trade Fair Asia (ITB Asia 2023) took place at the Marina Bay Sands Exhibition Center in Singapore with the participation of more than 80 tourism agencies and organizations and more than 1,800 international and regional exhibitors and exhibitors, in which Vietnam actively participated with many booths of provinces/cities and leading travel and tourism businesses.

Attending this year's ITB Asia Tourism Fair, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism coordinated with the Vietnamese Embassy in Singapore to organize a booth to promote Vietnamese tourism in general and Ho Chi Minh City in particular to Singaporean and regional tourism businesses, creating opportunities for exchange, meetings, and promoting trade connections.

Attending the exhibition booth to introduce and promote Vietnam tourism at ITB Asia this year are Binh Phuoc province, Da Nang city, and leading Vietnamese airlines and travel companies such as Vietnam Airlines, Vinpearl, Viettravel, Saigon Tourist, Ben Thanh Tourist, TST Tourist, SacoTravel, Lua Viet Tours, Footsteps Indochina Travel, Saigon Global Travel,...

Speaking after the ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the Vietnamese pavilion, Vietnamese Ambassador to Singapore Mai Phuoc Dung said he was particularly pleased to see so many representatives of Vietnamese enterprises as well as those from provinces and cities attending the leading tourism fair organized by Singapore. Attending the event not only helps to connect and seek cooperation opportunities, but also helps Vietnamese agencies and enterprises learn from Singapore’s experience in organizing regional and international events.

Visiting Vietnam's booths, foreign travel business guests have the opportunity to meet directly with tourism management agencies, airlines, travel businesses, hotels, to learn about Vietnam's tourism products in general and Ho Chi Minh City in particular, designed specifically for the Singapore market, such as resort and health care tourism, cultural-historical tourism, Golf tourism, Bleisure tourism - MICE tourism, study tourism, eco-tourism,...

Mr. Le Truong Hien Hoa, Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, said that coming to ITB Asia this year, Ho Chi Minh City Tourism industry has great expectations, which is to continue to promote the Southeast Asian market together with Vietnamese enterprises. This is the second time Ho Chi Minh City Tourism industry has participated in ITB Asia, and expanded the booth space, interaction space with enterprises in other countries and the number of participating enterprises has also increased to 16 compared to 7 last year.

Commenting on Vietnam's participation at ITB Asia, Mr. Poh Chi Chuan, Executive Director of Exhibitions and Conventions of the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), commented: "After the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam is one of the top tourism destinations with high growth in the region. Tourism in the Asian region has also achieved rapid growth. We welcome Vietnam's participation at ITB Asia, which has been proven to help promote the recovery and growth of the regional tourism industry."

Regarding the prospects of Vietnam's tourism industry as well as tourism cooperation opportunities between Vietnam and Singapore, Mr. Poh Chi Chuan said that the tourism industries of Vietnam and Singapore are recovering and growing positively and healthily, and the two sides have many opportunities to promote cooperation. Culture, cuisine and nature are among the strong factors that make Vietnam an attractive destination for tourists not only from the region but also from around the world.

According to the assessment of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, Singapore is one of the important tourist markets for Vietnam tourism in general and Ho Chi Minh City in particular, always in the top 10 tourist markets to Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City in recent years.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, Vietnam welcomed nearly 310,000 Singaporean tourists in 2019. After the pandemic, in 2022, Vietnam welcomed 178,861 Singaporean tourists.