Ho Chi Minh City Pins Visitor Growth on Five-Track Campaign

Ho Chi Minh City's Department of Tourism has launched a destination campaign built on five product segments and a digital engagement platform, aiming to lift arrivals, visitor spending and market reach in one move.

The campaign, branded Vibrant Ho Chi Minh City – Vibrant Everywhere, Everyone, follows tourism growth the city recorded in 2026. Rather than a single-message advertisement, the department has structured it around five priority areas it wants sellers to build packages around:

• Culinary tourism
• Medical and wellness tourism
• Cultural, heritage and traditional craft village tourism
• MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions)
• River-based, coastal, island and ecotourism

For tour operators and wholesalers, that list reads like a product roadmap. Each segment gives agents and OTAs (online travel agencies) a distinct inventory angle — from food tours to wellness retreats to conference bids — rather than a generic city-break pitch.

How the digital layer works

A supporting platform, Ho Chi Minh City – 360° Vibrant Journey, drives destination discovery and visitor engagement. It pushes travelers toward historical landmarks, cultural attractions, waterfront areas and local dining through digital check-ins and activities tied to participating tourism businesses.

That mechanic matters commercially. Check-in-based journeys pull visitors directly into partner businesses — restaurants, attractions, operators — and give the DMO engagement data it can use to measure which products actually convert foot traffic.

Content, contests and awards

The campaign also enlists artists, journalists and content creators to produce videos, photographs and travel accounts targeting both domestic and international audiences. Earned and creator content is the distribution channel here, not paid brand media alone.

Three competitions sit alongside that content push:

• A culinary video competition
• A tourism innovation start-up contest
• A souvenir design competition

The department will also run the Ho Chi Minh City Vibrant Award 2026, recognizing tourism businesses and organizations for contributions to product development, service standards and sustainability. For suppliers, an award program doubles as a quality signal agents can cite when selling the city.

City officials frame the wider goal as stronger cooperation between tourism businesses and local communities, with visitors encouraged to explore beyond the obvious landmarks and spend across more of the destination.

No budget figures, arrival targets or partner names were disclosed at launch — so the campaign's real test will be whether the check-in platform and five-segment structure translate into measurable bookings and longer stays.

The Vibrant Award 2026 will offer an early checkpoint on which businesses the city considers its strongest product builders.