VietNamNet Bridge – As HCMC lacks souvenirs and gifts typical of its features for tourists, the HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism will organize a design contest to find distinctive souvenirs to meet their shopping demand.



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Tourists inspect souvenirs at Saigon Central Post Office.

 

 

According to Nguyen Duc Chi, deputy head of the department’s travel division, everyone can join the contest which will last from October 25 to December 10.

The department will pick excellent designs and showcase them at exhibitions and in tourism promotion programs. Excellent designs of souvenirs will be used for mass production.

“Currently, spending of tourists is not high and the amount tourists spend on souvenirs and gifts is modest,” said Chi.

A recent survey on tourists’ demand of buying souvenirs in HCMC conducted by the department indicates that most of the domestic and international tourists want to buy products symbolic of localities they visit.

However, the souvenir market fails to meet such a demand. HCMC has yet to have distinctive souvenirs and stores sell handicraft products similar to those seen in other localities as well as souvenirs of other countries.

The survey is carried out among 1,856 tourists, including 1,048 international visitors.

A businesswoman who runs some souvenir stores in HCMC and other provinces said that her stores also lacked souvenirs appealing to tourists. She often buys souvenirs of foreign countries as samples for local production, she added.

“Many facilities offer souvenir samples that are normally of old designs and not eye-catching and are similar to one another,” she said.

According to the HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, growth of international tourists coming to the city has slowed down, with a year-on-year increase of 3% in the January-September period to around 2.8 million arrivals. However, revenues earned from travel, restaurants and hotels rose by 20% to around VND63.3 trillion in the period.

HCMC expects to welcome around 4.1 million tourists this year.

Source: SGT