Foreigners visit Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: VNA

Ho Chi Minh City ranked second in a list of 10 most searched travel destinations by Americans this year after London, according to Google Flights data.

The list is comprised of trips departing from the United States between January 1 and September 30 and searches done during that same time frame.

International searches for tourism in Vietnam remain high, VNA citied the Vietnam National Tourism Administration (VNAT) under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

In November, international searches for accommodation in Vietnam increased 12 times compared to March and the hunt for flights to Vietnam increased four times. Vietnamese destinations most sought after by international visitors were HCM City, Hanoi, Da Nang, Phu Quoc, Nha Trang, Hoi An, Da Lat, and Phan Thiet.

HCM City also was one of the 15 cities most searched globally by travelers for the year-end holiday season, hotel booking data from online travel agency Booking.com shows.

According to VNAT, in the first 11 months of this year, Vietnam attracted 2.95 million international tourists, 21.1 times higher than the figure in the same period last year. Visitors from the Republic of Korea (RoK) were still the largest of the total number with 26%, followed by US tourists at 9%.

The HCM city has topped the list of destinations with the highest number of tourists in the year to date. The city has received over 23 million visitors, including 2.1 million foreign arrivals.

Last week, the second HCM City Tourism Week, a series of tourism-sport-music events serving domestic and foreign visitors, kicked off at a ceremony in the southern metropolis.

The 2022 edition has a larger scale and more diverse activities than those of the previous year.

Marching through the streets bearing the landmarks of old Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City today, especially stopping at unique attractions. Photo: Thanh Nien

The city is focusing on developing food streets to help tourists find it easier to experience and enjoy Vietnamese cuisine during their stay in the city.

According to a plan submitted by the Department of Transport to the municipal People's Committee in July, from now to 2025, there will be 22 more pedestrian streets in the downtown city.

These streets are expected to contribute to improving the attractiveness, promoting tourism, trade and service activities in the central area, where many historical monuments, scenic spots, and unique culture and architectural works are located.

The city also expects to fully exploit bleisure travel - a novel type of tourism combining business travel with leisure time.

The city aims to elevate the promotion of MICE (meeting, incentive, convention, exhibition) tourism in post- Covid-19 period, according to a representative of the Department of Tourism.

This is also one of the solutions to promote international tourism, along with collaboration with ministries, agencies, Vietnamese representative offices abroad and international partners to bring tourists to HCM City, the representative said.

As soon as the country reopened to international travelers, the city’s tourism industry received a group of 130 tourists from the US.

In addition to the issuance of tourism stimulus policies, building new products and focusing on developing bleisure travel and MICE tourism, the city also welcomed tourists that arrive by cruise ships.

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