Nguyen Hue Flower Street to be open on Tet holiday.
|
In October, the city authorities chose AGS Company's designs for the flower street and the flower festival at Tao Dan Park. According to the authorities, the designs are creative, unique and use modern technology. However, the designs for the area around Ho Chi Minh statue, the mascot and the font of the title was considered too simple and need to be reworked.
The display is organised by Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee in collaboration with Saigon Tourist Travel Firm. This is the 15th consecutive year the flower street has been organised.
Ho Chi Minh City is polling public opinion about making more streets in its backpacker area pedestrian-friendly, a plan which aims to provide a bigger venue for the Lunar New Year celebrations in mid-February.
At a meeting on December 4, the city's government instructed its tourism department to seek public opinion on turning De Tham and Do Quang Dau into walking streets. Both streets cross Bui Vien, which is already pedestrianized over the weekends.
Accordingly, the switch, if approved, should ideally be completed by the Lunar New Year, the country’s biggest festival which will peak on February 16. Vietnam’s labor ministry has proposed a seven-day break from February 14 to 20 to mark the holiday, which will need the official nod from the prime minister.
Bui Vien and the two streets up for discussion sit at the heart of Ho Chi Minh City’s popular tourism precinct, which is packed with bars, restaurants and dance clubs. The area pulls in around 2,000 tourists on its best days and earns more than VND37 billion ($1.63 million) a year.
The city spent VND13 billion ($572,300) on granite paving, music stages, surveillance cameras, security guards, free wifi and public toilets to turn Bui Vien into a weekend walking zone in August.
Nguyen Hue, the first walking street to open in the crowded city in 2015, has become an attraction to locals and foreigners alike. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s biggest commercial center, is one of the most popular destinations in the country.
During the first six months, foreign arrivals increased 14 percent from a year ago to nearly 2.8 million, while the tourism sector raked in VND53.6 trillion ($2.4 billion), up 12 percent from the same period last year, according to the city’s tourism department.
