The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism has kicked off its annual tourism stimulus programme with a variety of tours and attractions offered to international and domestic visitors in 2020.

Nearly 70 enterprises joined the tourism stimulus programme next year, with tour operators, hotels, restaurants and shops offering discounts of 10-50 percent, according to Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa, deputy director of the city’s Department of Tourism.

The tour packages feature the city’s most popular attractions explored by car, motorbike, cyclo, bicycle, boat or on foot.

The programme aims to celebrate major national holidays and lure more tourists to the city, Hoa said.

It is also part of efforts to promote the city as a friendly, safe and exciting tourist destination, she added.

A total of 88,000 tourists have been served this year under the city’s tourism stimulus programme, with most of them foreign visitors.

The programme’s turnover was estimated at 33 billion VND (1.42 million USD).

The city welcomed 8.5 million international tourist arrivals this year, a year-on-year increase of 14 percent.

The number of domestic visitors rose by 13 percent to reach 32.77 million this year.

Turnover from the tourism sector is estimated at 150 trillion VND (6.47 billion USD) this year, up 14.5 percent over last year.