VietNamNet Bridge – Entrepreneurs and tourism promoters have registered 136 booths at this year’s annual HCMC Tourism Day which will take place at September 23 Park in downtown HCMC between April 8 and 11.

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Nguyen Bao Anh, deputy head of tourism promotion at the HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, told the Daily on Tuesday that the organizer targeted 150 booths for this year’s event, 10% more than last year.

The event will focus on attracting local travelers by giving travel service providers an opportunity to promote their services directly, especially for the summer season.

The organizers expect 100,000 people will join HCMC Tourism Day to book tours and other tourism services.

“The event will promote new products for the summer travel season, promotion tours, and lucky draws to encourage more local people to travel,” the organizer said.

Anh added that the event had been moved from the Dam Sen Culture Park in District 11 to a more convenient venue in downtown HCMC to make it easier for visitors to join.

The department is inviting foreign tourism representative offices from Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines to join the event too.

The organizer will spend more than VND4.2 billion on the sixth event. Nearly VND1.3 billion will come from the city’s tourism promotion budget.

In related news, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has reported 11-12 million local travelers already this year, almost half of the travelers in 2009. About 25 million local people traveled last year, up 19% compared to the previous year. Vietnam’s tourism sector aims to reach 27 or 28 million local travelers this year.

VietNamNet/SGT