General rehearsal of the musical Legendary Train - the highlight of the 2nd Ho Chi Minh City River Festival on the evening of May 29 at Saigon Port, District 4 - Photo: QUANG DINH
The event also contributes to spreading other inner-city tourism products, creating momentum for the development of river tourism, and encouraging businesses to invest in new products.
Sold out
A representative of Saigontourist Travel said that 300 seats in the special tour "Chill with Ho Chi Minh City River Festival", from 6pm to 10pm on May 31, with a package price of only 399,000 VND/person, were sold out as soon as they were put on sale.
Last year, this business expressed regret when the Ho Chi Minh City River Festival was held for the first time and received much attention, but the business was caught off guard.
Ms. Doan Thi Thanh Tra, marketing and communications director of Saigontourist Travel, said that more than 300 tickets to the musical show on the Saigon River "The Legendary Train" were sold out in 32 hours. Events of the city's scale are always favored by businesses, so as soon as information is available, many new tour products are designed to be offered.
"With this tour, the business did not have time to advertise, just posted for sale and already had customers buying. Many international tourists also asked about the tour to see the River Festival. After last year's buzz, many people want to participate in this year's program, the communication work was also done quite well," Ms. Tra assessed.
Many businesses also suggested that if Ho Chi Minh City considers this a regular festival, ticket sales and communication should be expanded, such as online ticket registration. Many countries in the world that have concerts record guests registering months in advance, booking air tickets 3-4 months in advance, such as Thailand and Singapore.
During this festival, Penguin Travel also launched two tour programs, including the "Listen to the Saigon River Telling Stories" tour combined with the 2024 River Festival's show car tour priced from VND399,000/person. "The customers buying the tour are quite diverse, not only city residents but also quite a lot of customers from neighboring provinces," said a representative of this business.
Similarly, the organizers affirmed from the beginning that the art program "Legendary Train" would not sell tickets and would be broadcast for free online. However, as soon as it was released on May 22, tickets were quickly sold out even though the grandstand was designed for 9,000 live spectators, showing the attraction of the event.
What's in 'Legendary Train', the highlight of Ho Chi Minh City River Festival?
Promote vibrant inner city tours
The expectations of tourism businesses do not stop at the above event. Visitors from all over the city will not only enjoy the Ho Chi Minh City River Festival, but will also take other tours in the diverse inner-city tour package. This is a way to sell and encourage tourists to use the services, spreading more inner-city tours.
Ms. Pham Phuong Anh - General Director of Viet Travel Company - shared that the company also quickly innovated and deployed many tour products with attractive itineraries to serve domestic and foreign tourists throughout the 2nd Ho Chi Minh City River Festival. A survey by this company showed that more than 90% of tourists on inter-provincial tours staying in Ho Chi Minh City when surveyed were very excited to participate in inner-city tours in the city.
"We have launched inner-city tours imbued with local cultural and historical features and connecting tourist destinations by urban waterways, such as "There is a very different Saigon" with a route from Bach Dang wharf to Can Gio; "Upstream to the historical land" where visitors experience destinations from Bach Dang wharf to Cu Chi tunnels; "City by the river" combining cars and river buses to help visitors understand more about vibrant Ho Chi Minh City...", Ms. Phuong Anh informed.
Mr. Nguyen Minh Man, in charge of communications at TST Travel Company, also said that some inner-city tour routes are attracting a lot of tourists to Ho Chi Minh City in the summer of 2024, associated with the journey to explore the city's beautiful scenery by river or watch the sunset by river bus.
Now the products have passed the "testing" or "loss-making" period and started to bring in profits. This is because people are increasingly familiar with half-day or one-day tours around the city.
Mr. Le Truong Hien Hoa, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, added: this year, the promotion of the City's River Festival program has been pushed forward, creating conditions for travel businesses to integrate it into their tour sales programs and tourism products to increase economic efficiency.
Since the end of last year, the City Department of Tourism has announced early the schedule of events to promote and advertise tourism, including the River Festival. Thanks to that, tourists can easily receive information and grasp the activities that interest them.
"In this second festival, the highlight of the program is to reserve more space for people to participate in the musical "Legendary Train" on the Saigon River. Along with that is a 10-day event series with many activities throughout the city. The event contributes to conveying river tourism products, increasing economic value, and raising awareness among people," said Mr. Hoa.
Last year, during its first time, after 4 days of the festival, 53,956 international visitors came to the city, an increase of 112.4% compared to the previous April 30 and May 1 holidays.
Restaurant ships reached 100% capacity during the festival, revenue from restaurant ships increased by 23% compared to normal, inland waterway routes increased by 50% in passengers, river bus routes, expressways and waterway tours welcomed about 12,000 passengers, an increase of 15% compared to normal; accommodation room capacity increased by 20%, especially hotels in the central area.
Mr. Nguyen Van Dung, Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, hopes that the program will continue to affirm the strategy of building Ho Chi Minh City as a destination city that never sleeps, a city of events and festivals. The events not only create entertainment venues but also help the city's economic vitality become more vibrant, worthy of developing the country's leading economy.
"The city hopes that the River Festival will develop into a series of events and initially be maintained annually by the Ho Chi Minh City tourism industry until 2030," the vice chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee affirmed.
Main activities of Ho Chi Minh City River Festival 2024
The Saigon River is the soul of the vibrant river city, imbued with historical values and the spirit and youthfulness of the times. In the photo: the rehearsal ceremony at Saigon Port, District 4 on the evening of May 29 - Photo: QUANG DINH
According to the organizers, tickets to the opening art show "Legendary Train" taking place on the evening of May 31 are issued free of charge, each ticket is for only one person. Any act of creating, buying, selling, or using tickets/bracelets of unknown origin, not issued by the organizers, will be handled according to regulations.
Sharing more about the program's content, general director Le Hai Yen said that the entire crew, artists, actors... did not hesitate to practice every day with excitement, hoping to contribute to an art program that leaves a prominent mark in the development of the city's cultural industry.
Thereby, turning historical stories into cultural tourism products to spread the cultural values of the nation, promoting the image of the country and Vietnamese people to domestic and international audiences.
The highlight program "Legendary Train" has the participation and contribution of famous names such as director Pham Hoang Nam, music director Duc Tri, chief choreographer Tan Loc, technical advisor - artisan Van Tong, poet Vi Thuy Linh participated in writing commentary...
The combination of big names makes many people excited about the opening art program of the 2nd Ho Chi Minh City River Festival 2024 at Nha Rong Khanh Hoi area - Saigon port.
Trailer of the 2nd Ho Chi Minh City River Festival, 2024
The 2024 Ho Chi Minh City River Festival will open on May 31, with a series of nearly 20 activities and a series of tourism stimulus programs lasting until June 9.
Along with the main activities is a program to stimulate demand and reduce ticket prices for performing arts programs.
Such as 10% discount on tickets for the Folk Water Puppetry show for groups of 20 or more, 10% discount on all ticket prices for art shows organized by the Symphony - Music and Ballet Theater during the festival from May 31 to June 2 for the ballet Cinderella at 8:00 p.m. on June 1 and 2 at the City Theater.
There are also water sports activities attracting nearly 500 athletes to participate, such as the Ho Chi Minh City Open River Swimming Tournament 2024; Stand-up paddleboarding (SUP) competition along with the Cultural, artistic and folk game space taking place from 6pm to 9pm on May 31, June 1, June 7 and June 8 at Ben Bach Dang Park.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/le-hoi-song-nuoc-tp-hcm-lan-thu-2-nam-2024-keo-nguoi-dan-den-song-sai-gon-20240530225551838.htm
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