Hanoi (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City isdiversifying tourism products and services to realise its goal of welcoming 8.5million international tourists in 2019, a year-on-year rise of 14 percent.

The city aims to serve 32.77 million domesticvisitors this year, an annual increase of 13 percent.

The tourism sector strives to gross 150 trillionVND (6.45 billion USD) in revenues, up 14.5 percent against 2018.

With a waterway of over 900km, the southerneconomic hub has favourable conditions to develop river tours.

According to the city’s waterway tourismdevelopment plan in 2017-2020, at least seven tour packages will be launched onthe Saigon, Dong Nai, Nha Be, Soai Rap, and Long Tau rivers.

The number of river tourists to HCM City isexpected to reach about 450,000 per year and increase 15 percent on an annualbasis in the following years.

The city hopes to greet 470,000 internationalsea passengers each year.

The city also hosts a number of festivals toattract visitors such as the annual tourism festival in April, the southernfood festival in May, the southern fruit festival in June, the internationaltourism festival in September, and the international food festival inDecember. 

A new feature of the local tourism is thelaunch of the dental tourism project with the ambition of surpassing countriesin Southeast Asia such as Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines. 

Compared to Thailand and Malaysia, which aredeveloping this form of tourism, HCM City has price advantages. 

Averagely each year, nearly 100,000 foreignpatients come to Vietnam for dental treatment. The sector rakes in about 150million USD in revenues.  

Australia, the US, and New Zealand record the largestnumber of dental tourists to Vietnam. 

Besides overseas tours, HCM City also developsdomestic ones. In the summer of 2019, the city offered nine tours to explorehistorical and cultural heritage sites in Cu Chi and Can Gio districts targetinglocal students and workers.-VNA