Saigon Tourism Corp. (Saigontourist), which was set up in 1975, has grown into a leading tourism firm in Vietnam. At present, Saigontourist is developing into a strong economic group with big investment projects. The main business scopes of Saigontourist are hotel, restaurant, travel, transportation, import, export, real estate, apartment for lease, tourism training, food processing and tourism services.
Until now, Saigontourist has made its presence felt in all major provinces and cities in the country, opened representative offices in Japan and had business contacts with more than 300 partners around the world. The success of Saigontourist in the past has mainly come from strategies to build infrastructure, introduce new and diversified products, advertise its products domestically and internationally, maximise profits and apply ISO14001 standards.
In 2006, Saigontourist expects to serve 1.5 million clients, obtain a total turnover of more than VND4,896 billion (US$306 million) and a profit of over VND1,233 billion (US$77 million) and pay above VND565 billion (US$35.3 million) to the State Budget. The annual growth of Saigontourist will be 16-18 per cent. By 2010, Saigontourist will become a strong economic group with annual revenues of above US$500 million and become a world top 500 travel firm.
The main business operations of Saigontourist in the coming time still focus on hotel, tourist site and travel. Mr. Nguyen Huu Tho, General Director of Saigontourist, forecast that Vietnamese firms can compete with international firms in the fields of hotel, tourist site and travel when Vietnam joins the WTO.
In the field of hotel and tourist sites, Saigontourist has been concentrating on investing in expanding the number of rooms in the Ho Chi Minh City’s downtown, completing procedures to kick off the expansion of Continental Hotel and Grand Hotel in 2006 and Majestic Hotel in 2007. At the same time, Saigontourist is investing and constructing 4-5-star hotels with international standards in Hanoi, speeding up the expansion and construction of Rex Hotel and Ethnics Culture and History Park and putting into operation Saigon-Quang Binh Hotel, Saigon-Kim Lien Resort and Saigon-Con Dao Hotel. The corporation is continuing to build the International Exhibition and Trade Fair Centre (District 7, Ho Chi Minh City), an office building project at 34 Ton Duc Thang Street (District 1, Ho Chi Minh City), Golf Saigon Course (District 9, Ho Chi Minh City) and others. In addition, Saigontourist also builds Bai Dai Resort (Cam Ranh City), Kim Do Hotel & Office Building, 209-ha Phu Quoc Deluxe Tourist Site, a deluxe tourist site in Sapa, Eden Commercial Complex and others.
Saigontourist also calls foreign investments for several big ongoing projects: finance, trading, banking, aviation, insurance, education and training. The financial investment is a major strategy of Saigontourist in the coming time.
Saigontourist is one of participants who are organising preparatory programmes and services to receive attendants to the APEC Vietnam 2006 meetings – the first to be held in Vietnam - in Ho Chi Minh City. The typical events include APEC Senior Official’s Meeting 2 (SOM II) and APEC Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Trade (MRT) at Sheraton Hotel; the banquet at Caravelle Hotel; the cooking show at Rex Hotel; residential services at Sheraton, Rex, Majestic and Lotus hotels; the organisation of tours to famous sites in Ho Chi Minh City and Vinh Long Province. On this occasion, Saigontourist has sponsored over VND100 million in kind.
To make Vietnam an attractive destination for more international visitors, Vietnam should generalise many measures, according to Mr. Tho. The understanding about the importance of tourism in the economy, culture and society of a country should be improved. Investment should be poured into big national tourist sites while the promotion activities should be strengthened abroad. Vietnam should also take care of tourism workers, exempt visa for potential tourism markets of Vietnam, especially northern European and North America. Security is also a very important factor.
Anh Dao
Vietnamese
