HCM City (VNA) 🎃– More than 3,500 experts in the smokeless industry have gathered at the International Travel Expo Ho Chi Minh City 2023 (ITE HCM City 2023) in the southern economic hub city.

The 17th ITE HCM City 2023 is underway from September 7 - 9 at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre (SECC). The event is considered to be one of Vietnam’s premier tourism trade promotion activities, bringing solutions for sustainable development in the country’s burgeoning tourism industry. The opening of the event was attended by more than 3,500 delegates from 45 provinces and cities and 42 countries and territories.   Prominent guests at the ceremony included former State President Nguyen Minh Triet, former Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh, and former Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan, along with dignitaries from neighbouring countries, including leaders from the Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia, the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism of Laos, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand. Phan Van Mai, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, highlighted the positive signs of recovery in Vietnam’s tourism sector. In the first eight months of 2023, Vietnam welcomed over 87 million visitors, reaching 70% of the 2019 figure. International visitors accounted for 7.8 million—a remarkable 5.4-fold increase compared to the same period in 2022. Total tourism revenue surpassed 482 trillion VND (19.9 billion USD). Meanwhile, Ho Chi Minh City alone saw nearly 25 million visitors during the same period, reaching 63% of the 2019 numbers. International visitors surged by 105.2% compared to 2022 to nearly 3 million, and tourism revenue exceeding 100 trillion VND. These figures are a testament to the recent international collaboration on travel between countries and regions, the official said, emphasising ITE HCMC’s crucial role in boosting international visitor numbers to Vietnam. This year’s ITE HCMC, themed “Connectivity, Growth, Sustainability,” offers a rich array of professional activities. The event addresses pressing issues such as digital transformation, human resource restructuring, destination marketing, communication strategies, improving tourism service competitiveness and quality, green tourism trends, medical tourism, and sports tourism. After 17 editions, this year’s exhibition has attracted the participation of more than 400 exhibitors who are national and local tourism promotion agencies, tourism associations, airline companies and logistic units, among others. ITE-HCMC 2023 is also the only tourism promotion event in Vietnam that has a programme for international buyer.  According to organizing board, the exhibition has selected and invited 199 international buyers from 42 countries and territories which are key and potential inbound tourism markets of Vietnam, including representative countries from Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The event is expected to host over 9,000 Business to Business (B2B) trade meetings, enabling businesses and buyers to directly access exhibitors. To promote new tourism products in the city, the organizing board has coordinated with localities, including Ba Ria- Vung Tau, Ben Tre, Ninh Thuan, Kien Giang to organize survey trips to help international buyers and the media to experience tourism products in Vietnam. In addition, ITE- HCM City 2023 Tourism Awards will honour outstanding domestic and international units at the event. Exhibition goers will have a chance to receive attractive promotional offers from travel agencies, airlines companies, restaurants, hotels and lucky draws, among others./.