Hundreds of visitors fall victim to robberies in city

Travel agencies have complained about foreign tourists being robbed, disturbed and charged high taxi fares, and the travel security report also shows that hundreds of robberies targeting foreign visitors have been recorded in HCM City.
According to the report of the HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism produced based on records of ten big hotels and ten travel agencies in the city, there have been 255 robberies of foreign tourists’ assets this year. The HCMC Department of Foreign Affairs has received 222 letters of complaints about robberies related to foreign tourists and burglaries at houses of employees.
Besides, according to the report, HCMC Police have recorded 117 robberies this year, up 26 from last year.
The number of cases related to high taxi fares and the number of foreign tourists disturbed by street vendors and beggars has also increased.
Regarding safety for foreign tourists, Nguyen Van Tran, general director of APEX Tourist Co., said in a recent meeting that information about robberies has made tourists anxious, and safety for tourists is a complicated issue.
In addition, many foreign tourists are cheated by taxi drivers. Specifically, a tourist had to pay VND400,000 instead of over VND20,000 to go from Ben Thanh Market to the Palace Hotel on Nguyen Hue Street.
Some tourists have to pay high taxi fares while others have to report to the taxi operators and quarrel with drivers to get the money back, which is rather troublesome, Hung said.
Under the plan of ensuring travel security and safety for tourists, there will be police working all day on streets in the centers of districts 1, 3 and 5, at commercial centers, markets and places where festivals take place. The city will set up the hotline on 38 387 405 to receive information about emergencies.
According to the HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the city is expected to welcome around 3.8 million international tourists this year, up 10%, and the tourism revenues will reach some VND65 trillion.