Exciting Things pinpointed to entice int’l travelers

      Going places in HCMC will be made easier for international travelers as the city’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has come up with an idea to pinpoint 100 adorable products and services for visitors.
International travelers have a look at a wartime tank on display in the garden of the Reunification Palace, a must-see historic tourist site in HCMC.
The department will roll out a program known as Saigon - 100 Exciting, introducing 100 preferred things, services and tourist destinations in the city selected from ten different sub-sectors in the hospitality industry, said La Quoc Khanh, deputy director of the department.
The Saigon - 100 Exciting program is coincident with the ongoing nationwide tourism promotion program called ‘Impressive Vietnam’ launched by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) in an effort to tap the inbound segment, which saw a 10% decline in the first two months of this year due to the global economic downturn.
Khanh told a meeting with potential sponsors for the program on Wednesday that Saigon - 100 Exciting would feature ten sectors including hotel, restaurant, transportation service, local specialty, tourist destination, shopping center, city tour, and amusement park among others.
Each sector will select or vote for the ten most sought-after products or services to make a final list of 100 exciting things that will be introduced to international travelers during their visits to the city.
Khanh explained that criteria for the vote vary from sector to sector, but must highlight the unique characteristics of the city. For example, the list of ten impressive hotels in the city would not simply include those which are luxury, but rather those peculiar about the city such as location, history, culture and design besides their quality of services.
The vote is scheduled to start early next month and the result will be announced by June this year.
The organizer said from the initial 200 items, the list will be narrowed to 150 items, from which experts will vote for the final 100 exciting things, and that everyone can join the vote via flyers or websites of the local media.
Khanh at the meeting referred to opinions that tourism services in HCMC are not attractive in comparison with other cities of regional countries. Moreover, those services, for some reasons, have yet been standardized.
Therefore, the program aims not only to create new tourism products for the city but also to make it easier for international travel companies to introduce them to customers, he said.
Khanh noted that this was also a chance for travel and service companies to sit back together for a common voice and cooperation to entice more international travelers to the city in the wake of travel woes now.