Ho Chi Minh City’s tourism department is seeking approval from the municipal People’s Committee to allow entertainment places to remain open later instead of midnight closure, aiming to better interest international arrivals.
Foreign visitors to the southern metropolis, which was once considered the “Pearl of the Far East”, often complaint about the earlier close of local recreation areas, according to local tourism officials.
At present, all bars, restaurants, and dancing clubs in the city have to close at midnight.
Such a regulation is reasonless for a leading tourism metro like Ho Chi Minh City, Nguyen Thi Lap Quoc, head of the department said, asking the authorities to soon give a nod for the proposal.
“Not only Ho Chi Minh City but also other localities nationwide are losing chances to earn more money as they force entertainment places to close too early. The sooner we change, the better tourism development we have,” Quoc added.
Earlier this year, Hoi An Ancient Town, the World Heritage site in the central Quang Nam province made public new rules allowing restaurants and bars in the Hoi An Old Quarter and on Bach Dang Street to stay open all night instead of closing at 11pm.
“We have seen positive changes since the town applied the new rules. More tourists, especially foreign holiday makers arrived in Ho An and stayed longer, bring bigger profits for the province,” an official from the department explained.
Currently, Ho Chi Minh City has highest number of luxurious hotels in Vietnam with 150 hotels including ten five-star and four four-star hotels with 10,000 rooms. The city also reports 304 travel companies, including 120 licensed to provide outbound tours.
In the first eight months of this year the city welcomed more than one million, up 32 per cent on-year. It targets to serve around 1.8 million international tourists and some three million domestic vacationers this year, up 15 per cent and 20 per cent on-year.
Young People
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