13 HCMC hotels allowed to host foreign tourists

The Ho Chi Minh City tourism department on Friday announced a list of 13 hotels and six tourist attractions eligible to serve foreign tourists starting this month.

These include Rex Hotel, Sheraton Saigon Hotel, InterCotinental Saigon Hotel, Liberty Central Saigon Citypoint, Liberty Central Saigon Center Riverside, Liberty Central Saigon Center, Vien Dong Hotel and Silverland Sakyo, all in District 1.

Other hotels are Windsor Plaza Hotel and Equatorial Hotel in District 5, Novotel Saigon Center and Ramana Saigon in District 3, and Eastin Grand Saigon in Phu Nhuan District.

Six attractions allowed to welcome back foreign tourists are the Central Post Office, Ho Chi Minh Museum, Ao dai Museum, Cu Chi Tunnels, Sac Forest Tourism Area and Saigon Skydeck Observatory in Bitexco Financial Tower.

The list will be effective until Vietnam fully reopens its tourism on March 15, by which time the tourism ministry is expected to issue new guidelines.

The southern metropolis last month got the government greenlight to welcome back foreign tourists under the ongoing vaccine passport program along with six other localities including Quang Nam, Quang Ninh, Kien Giang and Khanh Hoa Province, and Da Nang City.

Once the pandemic is better controlled, HCMC hopes to receive 25 million domestic and 3.5 million foreign tourists this year.

Its tourism sector has a revenue target of VND97.7 trillion ($4.3 billion).

HCMC received over 8.6 million foreign visitors in 2019, or nearly half the total foreign arrivals in Vietnam.