HCMC to open Spanish language training course for tour guides

By Hoang Phong November 25, 2022 | 01:47 am PT

Spanish tourists drink beer on Bui Vien Street in HCMC, August 2022. Photo by Tung Tin

Tourism authorities in Ho Chi Minh City will organize a Spanish language training course for tour guides and those working in the tourism industry to better serve Spanish speaking tourists.

The course is expected to open early next year.

Bui Thi Ngoc Hieu, deputy director of HCMC Department of Tourism, said that the training course will help tour guides to fluently speak Spanish, the third most used online language after English and Chinese.

The number of tourists from Latin American countries to HCMC has been seeing positive signs after tourism reopening, according to the department.

The city has over 160,000 direct workers in the tourism sector and about one million indirect workers. Of these, there are 7,184 licensed tour guides and most of them are fluent in English, Chinese or South Korean.

HCMC expects to receive 3.5 million foreign tourists this year.

In 2019, it had welcomed 10 million foreign visitors.

Vietnam’s southern metropolis is among Asia-Pacific cities recording the slowest recoveries in international tourist arrivals at an estimated drop of 69% against pre-pandemic levels, according to a report released by Spain-based travel data and analytics company ForwardKeys.