Ho Chi Minh City is going after Australian travelers in earnest. At a tourism forum held in Sydney from August 8 to 13, the city signed a series of memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with the Australian Travel Industry Association (ATIA), luxury booking site Luxury Escapes, and experiential-tour giant Intrepid Travel. The goal is to jointly develop new products centered on food, history, eco-tourism, and local experiences, and to boost the flow of Australian visitors.
It might sound like a strategy story, but it's interesting from a resident's point of view too. The experiences being polished for Australian visitors largely overlap with the out-of-town destinations Japanese travelers would enjoy just as much. If you're spending a few days in Ho Chi Minh City, it's worth getting ahead of the curve and checking out where Australian visitors are heading.
Australia Is Ho Chi Minh City's 5th-Largest Source Market — 250,000 Visitors and Over 600,000 Yen Spent Per Person in 7 Months
According to Tuoi Tre News, Australia ranks as Ho Chi Minh City's 5th-largest source market. In the first seven months of 2026, the city welcomed 253,104 visitors from Australia. That's roughly 64% of all Australian arrivals to Vietnam as a whole, with most of them setting foot in Ho Chi Minh City first.
Across Vietnam as a whole, Australian arrivals over the same seven months reached about 397,000, up 22.5% year on year (DTiNews). Per-person travel spending runs AUD 5,600–6,200 (105–117 million dong), and stays run long, at 7–12 days. Converted at roughly 1 AUD ≒ 111 yen, that works out to about 620,000–690,000 yen spent per trip. It's not a segment that comes for a short, budget trip — these are travelers who stay multiple nights and venture out to the suburbs, and that's exactly why the city is putting in the effort.
What Intrepid Is Digging Into: Tay Ninh and Con Dao, Beyond the City Center
Of the MOUs signed, the one worth a resident's attention is the collaboration with Intrepid Travel. The company is co-developing responsible-tourism products with Ho Chi Minh City and pushing local experiences outside the city center. The destinations named in the reporting were two "hidden gems": Tay Ninh Province and Con Dao Island. Neither makes page one of the guidebooks, but both are well within reach from a Ho Chi Minh City base.
Tay Ninh's Ba Den Mountain Cable Car and the Cao Dai Holy See
Tay Ninh is about a two-hour drive from Ho Chi Minh City. The highlight is Ba Den Mountain (Black Lady Mountain), at 986m the highest peak in southern Vietnam. A cable car runs from the base up to the summit, and the base station holds a Guinness World Record as the world's largest cable car station, at 10,959 square meters. At the summit, a giant Buddha statue and gardens spread out, and on days when a sea of clouds rolls in, the view is transformed.
At the foot of the mountain stands the Cao Dai Holy See. Cao Dai is a uniquely Vietnamese religion that blends teachings from Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Christianity, and Islam, and it's said to have the third-largest number of followers in the country. The midday ceremony held in the vividly colored main temple is far more striking in person than in photos. Most day tours pair it with the Cu Chi Tunnels, and the whole trip works comfortably as a day trip from the city.
Con Dao Became "a Ho Chi Minh City Island" With July's Merger
The other destination, Con Dao, has a slightly different story. It used to belong to Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, but when that province merged into Ho Chi Minh City on July 1, 2025, Con Dao became part of the expanded Ho Chi Minh City. In other words, "from the city to an island resort" is now, administratively, a trip within the same city.
It's about a 45-minute flight from Ho Chi Minh City. Con Dao offers crystal-clear waters, untouched beaches, and Con Dao National Park. Sea turtle nesting season starts in April, and on Bay Canh Island you can join a national park guide program to watch mother turtles lay eggs from a respectful distance. At the same time, the island preserves the remains of Con Dao Prison, built by the French colonial government in 1861, conveying a heavier side of modern Vietnamese history. That contrast between nature and history is what makes the island so memorable.
Rowboats on the Mekong: A Shared Interest Between Australian and Japanese Travelers
The city's list of products includes food, history, eco-tours, MICE, local cultural experiences, luxury resorts, and responsible tourism. Among these, the entry point for eco and local experiences is the Mekong Delta. Drive south from the city, visit orchards and bee farms on the delta islands, and row along small palm-lined canals. This is exactly where Australian travelers' search for "local experiences" and Japanese travelers' enjoyment of river trips overlap.
When planning how to spend your time in Ho Chi Minh City,our guide to the ideal number of days for a Ho Chi Minh City stay and plans by purposeis worth deciding on first, so it's easier to figure out where to fit in a day trip to the suburbs. For those who want more eco-experience,our Mekong Delta boat trip guideis worth a look, and for those curious about how strong overall visitor numbers are city-wide,our piece on Vietnam's tourism recovery, which topped 10.7 million foreign visitors in the first half of the yearis worth reading alongside this one — together they give a sense of the current energy in Ho Chi Minh City.
Summary
The experiences Ho Chi Minh City is developing for Australian visitors — Tay Ninh's cable car and Cao Dai Holy See, the island of Con Dao now within city limits after the merger, and rowboats on the Mekong — are all suburban destinations reachable in a day trip or overnight from downtown. What 253,104 Australian visitors showed in seven months is a travel style that doesn't end with city sightseeing alone. Next time you're in Ho Chi Minh City, try adding just one more day beyond Ben Thanh Market and Dong Khoi Street.
Sources
- Tuoi Tre News, "Ho Chi Minh City targets Australian tourists with new travel experiences" (August 10, 2026): https://news.tuoitre.vn/ho-chi-minh-city-targets-australian-tourists-with-new-travel-experiences-103260810184148469.htm
- DTiNews, "Australian arrivals to Vietnam surge, rank among high spenders" (August 10, 2026): https://dtinews.dantri.com.vn/lifestyle/australian-arrivals-to-vietnam-surge-rank-among-high-spenders-20260810090904034.htm
- Karryon, "Intrepid Travel x Ho Chi Minh City drive responsible tourism" (on the MOU with Intrepid Travel): https://karryon.com.au/industry-news/intrepid-travel-ho-chi-minh-city-mou/
- SGGP English, "New Ho Chi Minh City officially established, beginning operations on July 1" (on the 2025 provincial merger): https://en.sggp.org.vn/new-ho-chi-minh-city-officially-established-beginning-operations-on-july-1-post118580.html
