When will Ho Chi Minh City become a 'shopping paradise'?

The event of a leading Chinese tourism group coming to Ho Chi Minh City to sign a cooperation agreement to research and build a duty-free shopping center with the goal of bringing millions of Chinese tourists to Vietnam to spend money has once again fueled the ambition of becoming a "shopping paradise" of the country's largest economic center.

Ho Chi Minh City still has great room to exploit shopping tourism.

Fertile land left open

"Three duty-free shopping malls opened in three top destinations will attract about 20 million Chinese visitors to Vietnam each year. These are all high-end, high-spending visitors, contributing to adjusting the structure, helping Vietnam welcome luxury visitors from this market" - billionaire Johnathan Hanh Nguyen, Chairman of Inter-Pacific Import-Export Company Limited (IPPG) emphasized at the signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding with China Tourism Group (CTG) on opening three duty-free stores in Ho Chi Minh City, Mong Cai City and Nha Trang City.

It is not until now that Ho Chi Minh City leaders have begun to pay attention to shopping tourism. Since the beginning of 2019, the City People's Committee has assigned the Institute for Development Research to develop a project to turn the city into a shopping and commercial center for the region and the whole country.

Data from the Institute for Development Studies at that time showed that trade accounted for the largest proportion in the city's economic structure but had not been exploited effectively. In the context of slowing economic growth, developing the trade sector commensurate with its potential and advantages would make an important contribution to the city's economic growth.

But interrupted by the pandemic, in 2021 the project continued to be discussed with the goal of quickly building Ho Chi Minh City into a regional and national shopping and commercial center in the 2021-2025 period, moving towards being on par with the Asian region in the 2026-2030 period. However, now approaching the final year of phase 1, Ho Chi Minh City is still obscure on the Southeast Asian shopping tourism map.

The famous shopping area is Ben Thanh market, but it mainly sells "fake" clothes, shoes, accessories, jewelry, etc., and low-quality Chinese goods. The city also has branded streets such as Dong Khoi, shopping streets from low to mid-range such as Nguyen Trai; hundreds of shopping establishments are granted signs of tourist-standard shopping services, with VAT refunds for tourists... but each segment is not organized systematically, operates separately, so it does not create an effect.

The "battlefield" of luxury goods is almost still vacant in the structure of shopping tourism in Ho Chi Minh City.

There will be "huge" scale complexes for guests to spend money.

According to the World Travel Cities Federation (WTCF), the scale of the shopping tourism industry will reach 61 billion USD in 2022, of which Korea holds 16 billion USD. Asia-Pacific countries account for 53% of the market share of the commercial shopping tourism market, but Vietnam's shopping ratio is only a few hundred thousand USD. "King of luxury goods" Johnathan Hanh Nguyen compared Vietnam's figure to just a "drop of water" compared to the general level.

"Without shopping, tourism and the night economy cannot be developed. Branded goods are the area where we still have a lot of room, especially in Ho Chi Minh City. Specifically, the 10-year socio-economic development strategy (2021 - 2030) has identified the direction and task of promoting Ho Chi Minh City to become an international financial center. The resolution has been approved by the City People's Council along with a strategy to invite international businesses to cooperate. Currently, Long Thanh International Airport is being built with a scale of 100 million passengers/year, becoming a hub for the region and the world. In addition, businesses like IPPG have negotiated with suppliers to achieve selling prices equal to those in France, Singapore and lower than in China, even though they are retail and subject to taxes. If conditions are created to form factory outlet areas and duty-free shops on the street, Ho Chi Minh City in particular and Vietnam in general will be a "magnet" attracting international visitors to spend money" - Mr. Johnathan Hanh Nguyen affirmed.

The king of luxury goods expects: In the scale of 61 billion USD that WTCF calculated, we must build a plan right now to capture 10 billion USD. 10 billion USD is very large, creating more jobs, promoting growth, production, and consumption. Instead of focusing on jobs that bring in an income of 8 - 10 million VND/person/month, we need to prioritize developing industries that bring in high revenue to reach the income level of a developed country by 2045 as planned. "Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia are about to reach the ceiling, while we still have a lot of room. Thu Duc City still has hundreds of thousands of hectares of unexploited land. The "boss" of China's duty-free business has also arrived, what is there to hesitate about? Ho Chi Minh City must have shopping malls and high-end stores", Mr. Johnathan Hanh Nguyen emphasized.

Around the world, most countries are aware of the importance of duty-free shopping in “fueling” tourism.

Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa also said that shopping tourism is identified as one of the main product segments that brings in the main source of revenue for the city's tourism industry. To increase spending and length of stay of tourists, in the coming time, the city will prioritize the development of shopping systems, supermarkets, duty-free shopping centers, especially large-scale complexes that not only have resorts but also shopping, cultural, entertainment, culinary activities...

That orientation is currently being coordinated by departments and branches to specifically identify areas where these large-scale centers, factory outlet areas, duty-free shops on the street... can be developed right from the general planning stage.

"The Department of Tourism will advise the City People's Committee to have mechanisms and policies to encourage businesses to invest in this field; have mechanisms to mobilize domestic and foreign resources to invest in strategic projects to develop shopping tourism. The current period is very favorable when the city has Resolution 98 of the National Assembly, creating conditions to speed up the progress of key projects in the economic field in general and tourism in particular" - Ms. Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa added.

To become a regional commercial center, the city must first have infrastructure and abundant goods. Ho Chi Minh City is the place where almost all the goods and cuisine of the whole country are concentrated, but it still does not have its own unique products with its own mark. There must be an assessment and solution to build unique products. In addition, there is a great lack of specialized centers serving each customer group. For example, international customers who want to buy domestic products need to have an introduction and shopping center for international customers; tax refund stores for foreign customers outside the airport area.

Mr. Bui Ta Hoang Vu, Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and Trade

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/tphcm-thanh-thien-duong-mua-sam-bao-gio-185240402124156182.htm