On August 27, 2026, the 20th International Travel Expo Ho Chi Minh City (ITE HCMC 2026) grandly opened at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center (SECC) in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Marking a milestone 20th anniversary, this year's expo has brought together over 520 tourism organizations and related enterprises from more than 40 countries and regions worldwide, along with 260 international professional buyers. According to the organizers, approximately 21,000 intensive B2B business matching sessions are scheduled to take place during the event, injecting strong momentum into the recovery and prosperity of the regional and global tourism markets. The opening ceremony was attended by Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Vo Thi Anh Xuan, along with senior leaders from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Ho Chi Minh City.
Centered on the theme "Vibrant Connections - Global Destinations," this year's ITE HCMC fully demonstrated its profound legacy as a leading tourism trade promotion platform in Southeast Asia. Over the course of the three-day expo, all 34 provinces and cities of Vietnam participated, showcasing their rich local cultural and tourism resources. The event not only provides a showcase for domestic enterprises but also serves as a bridge connecting core source markets across Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Oceania, greatly facilitating the optimized allocation and efficient matching of transnational tourism resources.
In his opening address, Nguyen Loc Ha, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, provided an in-depth analysis of the opportunities and challenges currently facing the tourism industry. He pointed out that further strengthening regional ties and cooperation, and comprehensively advancing digital transformation and green tourism development, will help build a more connected and competitive tourism ecosystem, thereby consolidating Vietnam's strategic position in the global tourism market. Nguyen Loc Ha emphasized that after 20 years of dedicated development, ITE HCMC has established itself as a benchmark for major international tourism promotion events in the region. However, with the continuous evolution of tourist preferences, market expansion approaches, and business models, the entire industry urgently needs to step into a brand-new stage of development. He stated that major tourist destinations must transcend the traditional mindset of merely pursuing growth in visitor numbers, and instead focus on improving service quality, enriching the tourism product portfolio, enhancing core competitiveness, and keenly adapting to emerging market trends. Therefore, Ho Chi Minh City regards deepening cooperation with other localities, international markets, and upstream and downstream enterprises in the tourism value chain as a key pathway to achieving sustainable growth in the future.
In his speech, the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism highly affirmed the international influence of the expo. He stated that the successful hosting of ITE HCMC 2026 fully reflects the international community's firm confidence in Vietnam's tourism market and Vietnam's growing appeal as a global tourism destination. He particularly pointed out that this year's expo is committed to integrating profound cultural identity with cutting-edge technology, aiming to inspire the younger generation of tourism professionals and creators to develop smarter, more personalized, and uniquely distinctive tourism products for international visitors. He emphasized that ITE HCMC 2026 is not only a trade platform connecting markets and enterprises but also a bridge closely linking cultural identity with new value creation, leading the industry toward high value-added development.
In terms of exhibition content and areas of cooperation, this year's expo demonstrates strong foresight and inclusiveness. Beyond traditional tourism product displays, the expo has attracted top international partners covering fields such as travel tech, luxury travel, business travel, and MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions). Even more notably, this year's expo has actively expanded cross-sector integration, extending its reach into emerging niche sectors such as education and healthcare, providing rich practical scenarios for the diversified development of the industry.
In addition to high-density B2B business matching, ITE HCMC 2026 concurrently hosted multiple high-level professional forums. Industry experts, government officials, and corporate representatives engaged in in-depth discussions on core issues such as sustainable tourism development trends, policy innovation mechanisms, and the deepening of regional cooperation. Standing at the new starting point of its 20th anniversary, ITE HCMC has not only witnessed the takeoff of Vietnam's tourism industry but will continue to play its role as a global tourism bellwether, promoting the high-quality development of the tourism industry in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond in a greener, smarter, and more sustainable direction.