Ho Chi Minh City tourism revenue nears $11bn in 2025

The figures were released at a year-end conference on Tuesday, organized by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism to review 2025 performance and outline key tasks for 2026.

Speaking at the event, Nguyen Trung Khanh, head of the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism, said 2025 remained a challenging year globally, marked by economic uncertainty, intensifying competition among destinations, and growing demands for rapid recovery paired with sustainable development.

Despite those pressures, Vietnam’s tourism sector posted robust results.

The country is estimated to have welcomed around 21.5 million international visitors and 135 million domestic tourists in 2025, generating total tourism revenue exceeding VND1 quadrillion ($38 billion).

With growth of roughly 21 percent, Vietnam has been ranked by UN Tourism among the world’s fastest-growing tourism markets.

Against that backdrop, Ho Chi Minh City continued to assert its role as the country’s leading tourism hub and growth engine.

According to data presented at the conference, the southern metropolis served approximately 8.56 million foreign visitors and 45.6 million domestic tourists this year. 

Its total tourism revenue reached about VND279 trillion, equivalent to 101 percent of the year’s plan.

Nguyen Van Dung, vice-chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, said the figures not only reflected impressive performance but also underscored the city’s vitality and openness in an increasingly integrated global environment.

He added that the city’s broader socio-economic indicators in 2025 were equally encouraging.

Gross regional domestic product growth exceeded eight percent, reinforcing Ho Chi Minh City’s position as the nation’s economic locomotive.

As of December 26, the city’s total state budget revenue topped VND775.5 trillion ($29.5 billion), or 113.5 percent of the annual target, with tourism making a significant contribution.

In the year to come, Ho Chi Minh City has set a state budget revenue target of about VND803.6 trillion ($30.5 billion).

To achieve this goal, city leaders have identified science and technology, innovation, and infrastructure development as key drivers of future growth.

Tourism, they emphasized, will remain one of the city’s most important economic pillars.