The Ho Chi Minh City International Travel Expo has become an annual tourism event, attracting the participation of hundreds of buyers from many countries. As planned, the 16th ITE HCMC 2020 is expected to take place from September 4-6, 2020 at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center (District 7) with the theme "Gateway to World Tourism".
This is an annual event of the Vietnamese tourism industry under the direction of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City; Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism in coordination with the General Department of Tourism, Vinexad Company and Informa Exhibitions Company organized, aiming to promote the domestic tourist market and receive support from the tourism alliance of 5 countries Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
However, according to the latest announcement from Mr. Tran Vinh Tuyen - Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee, Ho Chi Minh City will not organize the International Tourism Fair 2020 as planned. The suspension of the ITE HCMC 2020 event is to implement measures to prevent the Covid-19 epidemic in the new situation; at the same time, ensuring the effectiveness and scale of the national tourism event.
Mr. Bui Ta Hoang Vu - Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism said that this unit has sent survey forms to exhibition units. Most businesses are still monitoring the development of the Covid-19 epidemic, key tourism markets of Vietnam are being heavily affected by the epidemic, restricting travel abroad.
"The tourism industry depends heavily on consumer sentiment and is very sensitive to safety and security aspects. In the recovery phase, regaining people's confidence to travel again after the pandemic will be a challenging task," Mr. Vu said.
In 2019, ITE attracted the participation of 42 countries and territories, 14 foreign tourism promotion agencies, 45 Vietnamese provincial and municipal units, 250 international buyers, 315 exhibition booths with over 8,000 trade appointments; attracting 30,000 trade visitors and the public.
