Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City Wins Three New World Travel Awards for Business Travel and Events

With the city of Ho Chi Minh receiving three outstanding honours at the World Travel Awards 2026, the city has been able to strengthen its image on the continent of Asia in terms of being a significant place for tourism as well as business. Actually, Ho Chi Minh City has been honoured with the title of Asia’s Leading Business Travel Destination 2026 and Asia’s Leading Festival & Event Destination 2026 at the World Travel Awards Asia, Oceania & Indian Ocean gala, which took place in the Maldives on September 27, 2026.

A Three-Way Recognition for Ho Chi Minh City

The awards cover three connected parts of the destination’s tourism proposition. Business travel recognises the city’s role in corporate and professional travel, while the festival and event category reflects its ability to attract visitors through major cultural and entertainment programmes.

World Travel Awards records show Ho Chi Minh City winning the business travel title every year from 2022 through 2026, while the festival and event title has also been retained from 2022 onwards.

MICE Moves Further Into the Spotlight

For Ho Chi Minh City, the business travel award is particularly relevant as the city continues to build its appeal among international visitors and higher-spending travellers.

MICE tourism brings together meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions, creating demand across hotels, venues, restaurants, transport operators, attractions and retail. It connects tourism with the city’s wider business economy.

In the first six months of 2026, Ho Chi Minh City recorded 6.39 million international visitor arrivals, up 58.1 per cent year on year, while tourism revenue reached almost VND214 trillion, according to city investment and trade authorities.

By the first nine months, separate figures cited by Vietnamese economic media put international arrivals above 8.5 million, with tourism revenue estimated at VND282.7 trillion. The Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre was also named Vietnam’s Leading Conference and Convention Centre 2026, strengthening the city’s MICE infrastructure.

Events Are Becoming a Tourism Product

The festival and event award points to another defining feature of the city’s visitor economy. Ho Chi Minh City has increasingly used festivals, cultural programmes, food experiences and major public events to give travellers reasons to visit beyond conventional sightseeing.

The city’s 2026 tourism programme includes initiatives designed to strengthen its food identity through digital storytelling. In September, the Department of Tourism launched a video competition focused on local cuisine, with the campaign running into November to create new digital content for domestic and international audiences.

That approach reflects a wider shift towards experiences that can be packaged and shared across different seasons. Food, nightlife, river experiences, culture and festivals can extend the visitor journey beyond a conference schedule or a short city break.

From Business Trip to Leisure Stay

One of the significant opportunities for Ho Chi Minh City is the connection between business and leisure travel. Delegates attending conferences can add restaurant visits, heritage attractions, shopping, cultural experiences and excursions to their schedules, potentially extending their stays.

Attractions such as the Central Post Office, historic landmarks and museums sit within an urban environment supported by international hotels and event venues.

For tourism planners, this creates a pathway from MICE arrivals to wider visitor spending. A delegate may arrive for a two-day meeting, but the same trip can become a longer holiday when leisure experiences are easy to access and market.

A Stronger International Tourism Profile

The latest WTA results also arrive as Ho Chi Minh City works to increase the value of tourism rather than focusing solely on visitor volume.

Proposed tourism support measures include night-time tourism, waterway tourism, weekend activities, events, green transition, digital transition, community tourism and rural and ecological products. The emphasis is on creating experiences that encourage visitors to stay longer, spend more and return.

The wider product mix matters because business travellers and event attendees can move between meetings, dining, culture, entertainment and shopping within a single trip.

What the 2026 Awards Signal

The three WTA titles in Ho Chi Minh City illustrate vividly the areas where the international tourism offerings of the city have been recognised: business travel, major events and destination management. The awards do not necessarily gauge all aspects of visitor experience, yet they help to further affirm the already existing reputation of Ho Chi Minh City in the highly competitive environment of Asian urban tourism. With the growth of international tourist flows, growing tourism revenues and the development of infrastructure for hosting events, Ho Chi Minh City is positioning itself increasingly as the place where business travel and vacation can co-exist in one package. This is important for the hotels and airlines because conferences and festivals help to balance the need for customers during both weekdays and weekends. The final outcome is that Ho Chi Minh City offers an urban Vietnamese break with an emphasis on business, food, culture and events throughout the year. It means that today the attraction of the city is no longer limited to a short visit in southern Vietnam. Conferences, festivals, food, culture, nightlife and city experiences all become part of one tourism offering.