Nguyen Hue Pedestrian Street in downtown Ho Chi Minh City was flooded with the cheerful and jubilant atmosphere as throngs of city inhabitants and foreign tourists last Sunday descended to Nguyen Hue pedestrian square to watch street art performances, which also officially wrapped up the HCMC Street Show program of 2017.
People gather at Nguyen Hue Pedestrian Quarter to watch street art shows
Since its debut in May this year, the public street art performances were organized on a weekly basis in the city’s first pedestrian quarter, except the days when the city held major events.
Speaking at a press conference on Sunday night to review the street show program in 2017, Mr. Bui Ta Hoang Vu, director of the HCMC Department of Tourism, said that the street art performances have become a unique cultural product of the city and thus contributed to the city’s tourism development.
The city hopes to welcome more than six million international visitors in all of 2017. Surprisingly, the six-millionth international visitor this week will come to the city, marking an important milestone, Mr. Vu says.
According to the municipal department, more than 20,000 pedestrians and those from abroad came to the pedestrian street to admire street art shows on weekend days over the past seven months since the first performance kicked off on May 13.
The last show on the night of December 10 brought a fantastic surprise to hundreds of local youths and music enthusiasts as popular Vietnamese-Australian artist Thanh Bui and young artist Bich Ngoc were present at the pedestrian quarter to stage exciting performances.
“Absolutely, Nguyen Hue pedestrian quarter is a highlight of the city center and is my favorite street when staying in HCMC. It’s amazing to see the crowds there and watch the exciting performances by young artists full of energy and enthusiasm,” a 36-year-old American woman told the Daily at the event.
The city government has recently been striving to organize street art shows at popular sites in the downtown area, especially on weekends, to woo more visitors to HCMC and make it one of the top places of choice for international travelers to Viet Nam.
International tourist arrivals in HCMC in the first 11 months of 2017 totaled 5.7 million, a pickup of 24% against the year-earlier period. Tourism revenue was over VND105.2 trillion (about US$4.6 billion), a year-on-year rise of 12.8%.