The first river tour in HCMC will be opened on January 22, taking tourists from Bach Dang Wharf in District 1 to the Painter Village in District 7, as part of the city’s tourism authority’s endeavor to diversify tourism products.
The route is one of several river tours on the Saigon River which the city’s tourism department has surveyed recently, with an aim to make river tourism one of the key products to enrich the city’s hospitality industry.
Leaders and officials of the city and representatives of travel firms have also made fact-finding trips up the Saigon River towards Dong Nai Province last year.
On the occasion of the opening ceremony, four travel firms of the city and the Painter Village will ink a memorandum of understanding for sending tourists to the village, said the city’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
In the middle of last year, the city government assigned the department to draft a plan of action to develop river tours from HCMC to neighboring provinces and even the far-away Mekong Delta province of An Giang and Cambodia.
Vice Chairwoman of HCMC People’s Committee Nguyen Thi Hong said that the city would build some wharfs for tourist boats. She has called on entrepreneurs to join hands with the tourism sector to develop river tourism, and promised to support entrepreneurs in developing such projects.