Dr. Pham Ha Founder and CEO LuxGroup
As Vietnam steps into 2026, Ho Chi Minh City finds itself at a decisive inflection point. Since mid-2025, the city has been officially expanded into a new mega-urban model—one core, three regions, one special zone. This structural transformation signals more than administrative ambition. It reflects a deeper strategic shift: from managing growth to orchestrating space—space for infrastructure, culture, innovation, and increasingly, for tourism to mature into a high-value, experience-driven economic engine.
The numbers from 2025 are compelling. Ho Chi Minh City welcomed 8.5 million international visitors, accounting for roughly 40% of Vietnam’s inbound arrivals, alongside 45 million domestic travelers. Tourism revenue reached an estimated VND 260 trillion, up more than 36% year-on-year. The city now hosts over 7,200 tourism enterprises, nearly 10,000 licensed tour guides, and provides livelihoods for approximately 145,000 direct workers—confirming its position as Vietnam’s tourism capital in terms of scale.
Yet scale alone is no longer enough.
For a metropolis nearly nine times the size of Singapore, with 2.5 times its population, blessed with 325 kilometers of coastline and 99 inland waterway ports, Ho Chi Minh City’s most under-leveraged advantage lies not in what has already been built, but in what has been historically overlooked: its rivers, its seas, and the layered stories flowing between them.
A City Born from Water
Long before expressways and high-rise towers reshaped its skyline, Saigon was a city of water. The Saigon River served as a vital commercial artery, linking the Mekong Delta’s agricultural hinterland with regional and global trade routes. Along its banks emerged shipyards, merchant houses, temples, pagodas, churches, and dense trading quarters where Vietnamese, Chinese, Khmer, and foreign merchants lived side by side.
Water shaped not only the city’s economy, but its psychology—an openness to exchange, a tolerance for difference, and an instinctive orientation toward the outside world. Saigon’s entrepreneurial spirit, long celebrated on land, was first forged on water.
Modern urbanization, however, gradually marginalized this aquatic heritage. Roads replaced rivers as the primary development axis. Ports were relocated. Tourism followed highways rather than waterways. As a result, Ho Chi Minh City became globally known for its dynamism and commercial energy—yet paradoxically disconnected from the very element that once gave it life.
The period 2026–2030 marks a deliberate return to water—not as a romantic revival of the past, but as a strategic re-alignment with the future.
The River–Sea Axis: A New Growth Narrative (2026–2030)
Ho Chi Minh City is uniquely positioned to develop a continuous river–sea tourism axis, seamlessly connecting:
• The historic urban core along the Saigon River
• Cần Giờ, a UNESCO-recognized mangrove biosphere reserve
• Vũng Tàu, emerging as Asia’s leading coastal city-break destination
• Côn Đảo, where sacred history, marine ecology, and slow luxury converge
This axis transforms tourism from a static, point-to-point visit into a layered journey—urban, ecological, coastal, and spiritual—within a single metropolitan system. Few Asian cities possess such proximity between a dense global city, a UNESCO biosphere, a modern beach destination, and a place of profound historical memory.
Equally important, the river–sea axis enables differentiated experiences at multiple speeds and price points:
• High-speed boats for same-day coastal and biosphere escapes
• Sunset dining and evening cruises catering to residents, executives, and business travelers
• Overnight river–sea cruises that transform water into a place of rest, reflection, and storytelling
Water, in this framework, becomes not merely a corridor to move through, but a stage on which the city performs its identity.
Amiral Cruises for Presidents®: When Ships Tell Stories
At the heart of this transformation is Amiral Cruises for Presidents—a next-generation giang hải luân thuyền, designed to navigate both inner rivers and near-shore seas.
Amiral is conceived not simply as a mode of transport, but as a floating cultural institution. Its ambition is to reinterpret Vietnam—quietly, elegantly, and with intellectual depth.
Each voyage is curated around three narrative layers:
1. Regions – from Saigon–Chợ Lớn–Gia Định to Cần Giờ’s mangroves, Vũng Tàu’s coastal modernity, and Côn Đảo’s sacred memory
2. Rivers – understood as deep archives of trade, migration, war, survival, and renewal
3. People – from early river merchants and Minh Hương communities to today’s entrepreneurs, artists, and globally connected Vietnamese
Onboard, the ship becomes a boutique hotel, fine-dining venue, gallery, and salon of ideas. Cuisine draws from regional memory rather than trend. Music and performance evoke eras of river life. Architecture references Indochine elegance without falling into nostalgia. The result is an immersive experience that feels intimate, cultured, and unmistakably Vietnamese.
Here, luxury is not defined by excess, but by meaning and interpretation.
Diversity of Experiences, One Strategic Spine
What distinguishes Ho Chi Minh City’s river–sea strategy is its range within coherence.
At one end of the spectrum are high-speed watercraft that enhance urban and regional mobility, easing pressure on land-based infrastructure. At the other are slow, contemplative cruises that invite guests to stay, listen, and reflect. In between are dining cruises, cultural evenings, and short experiential journeys that integrate seamlessly into urban life.
Together, these experiences reposition Ho Chi Minh City from a stopover city to a destination of depth. Length of stay increases. Spend per visitor rises. More importantly, emotional attachment grows—turning visitors into long-term ambassadors for the city.
Tourism shifts from checklist consumption to memory creation.
LuxGroup® and the Vietnam Waterways® Vision (2030–2045)
Behind Amiral stands a longer-term horizon articulated by LuxGroup: the Vietnam Waterways® vision—a modern, sustainable national fleet on water.
Between 2030 and 2045, this vision aims to:
• Develop a fleet of Vietnamese-branded river and sea vessels operating across urban, heritage, and coastal routes
• Position waterway tourism as a green, high-value industry aligned with ESG principles
• Use ships as cultural ambassadors, telling Vietnam’s story through lived experience rather than static exhibition
In this context, Amiral Cruises for Presidents® is not an isolated luxury product, but a flagship prototype—demonstrating how tourism, culture, maritime identity, and sustainable economics can converge into a compelling national advantage.
Looking Ahead: A Confident City on Water
The achievements of 2025 prove that Ho Chi Minh City can deliver scale.
The challenge of 2026–2030 is to deliver meaning.
Rivers and seas offer exactly that: space for slower travel, deeper storytelling, and sustainable value creation. If the coming decade succeeds, Ho Chi Minh City will no longer be seen only as Vietnam’s economic engine on land, but as a confident river–sea metropolis—rooted in its past, fluent in its waters, and imaginative about its future.
In a region racing to build ever-larger attractions, Ho Chi Minh City’s most powerful competitive edge may lie in something timeless:
letting its waters speak again—this time, to the world.
