HCMC top New Year's Eve holiday destination among domestic tourists

By Hoang Phong December 30, 2021 | 06:03 pm PT

Nguyen Hue pedestrian street in HCMC is filled with people attending a countdown program on New Year's Eve, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Huu Khoa

HCMC is the most favored destination of Vietnamese tourists for the New Year's Eve holiday, followed by northern highlands town of Sa Pa, per Agoda booking data.

The Central Highlands town of Da Lat is third, followed by Hanoi and Phu Quoc Island off the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang.

The world's leading accommodation reservation site said its listing was based on an analysis of booking data for the 2022 New Year’s Eve holiday.

The rest of the top 10 destinations in the country were Nha Trang, Vung Tau, Da Nang, Phan Thiet and Ninh Binh.

In Vietnam, tourists this year seem to prefer four-to-five-star hotels to welcome the New Year, indicating that the impact of the Covid pandemic has given rise to a preference for "staycation," or "vacations within the city," an Agoda report said.

Hanoi and HCMC, Vietnam's biggest metropolises, have announced that they would not hold the usual firework displays on New Year's Eve as part of responses to the worsening pandemic situation. Hanoi will not allow any outdoor programs for the event while HCMC countdown will not open to spectators.

This year, Vietnamese people have a three-day New Year holiday beginning this Saturday. Large cities and tourist hotspots typically welcome the New Year with popular firework displays, countdown events and a series of art programs; but the pandemic situation has prompted a change of plans.