Vietnam has moved from a line in Thailand's ASEAN column to a market the tourism board is working deliberately, with a named campaign, a segment list and a new air link into the Andaman. At ITE HCMC 2026, held from 27 to 29 August at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center, the Tourism Authority of Thailand ran a Thailand Pavilion built around a "New Thailand: Modern Thai Market" concept. This guide from a Thailand DMC for travel agents sets out what was announced, which Vietnamese segments are being targeted, and what the push changes for agencies inside and outside Vietnam.
Explera is an IATA TIDS-registered ground handler (96215733) trusted by 340+ agency partners, with in-house transport, licensed guides and 24/7 support. Reach the trade desk at b2b@explera.co.th.
What happened at ITE HCMC 2026
ITE HCMC is Vietnam's principal international tourism trade fair and a business-matching platform for the Lower Mekong region. The 2026 edition — its twentieth — ran from 27 to 29 August at the SECC in Ho Chi Minh City under the theme "Vibrant Connections – Global Destinations", with roughly six hundred exhibitors and, by the organisers' account, more than twenty-six thousand business appointments alongside B2B and B2C sessions and an ASEAN tourism dialogue.
TAT's presence took the form of a Thailand Pavilion under the concept "New Thailand: Modern Thai Market", styled on Bangkok's Song Wat neighbourhood — the riverside lane where heritage shophouses have turned into a contemporary food and design district. The choice of reference is not decorative. It signals the version of Thailand being sold into Vietnam: urban, current and creative rather than beach-and-temple.
What TAT is actually selling into Vietnam
The segment list TAT named is unusually specific, and specificity is what makes it useful to an agency:
- Millennial and Gen Z travellers — short trips, late booking, content-led destination choice.
- Families — the segment that fills mid-week capacity and tolerates shoulder dates.
- Incentive groups — corporate reward travel, which in this corridor books at short notice and moves in sizeable blocks.
- Luxury — the smaller, higher-value end that Thailand's wider policy direction is chasing across every market.
- Sports travellers — an increasingly deliberate category, and one that brings its own venue and transport requirements.
Two campaign mechanics were attached. The first is a set of group travel privileges aimed at parties of thirty or more, which is squarely an incentive-and-affinity play rather than a FIT one. The second is a consumer campaign, "Thái Lan, càng hiểu càng yêu" — "Thailand: The More You Know, The More You Love" — carried into late 2026 and 2027 and framed around the fiftieth anniversary of Thailand–Vietnam diplomatic relations falling in 2026.
The air link matters more than the pavilion
A trade fair signals intent. Capacity is what makes intent bookable, and the concrete development here is the Ho Chi Minh City–Phuket service that emerged from a TAT and Vietnam Airlines memorandum, reported as inaugurated at Phuket International Airport on 2 July 2026 and operating four times weekly.
That route is worth attention beyond the Vietnamese market, because it does something structural: it puts the Andaman coast within a short direct hop of a major Southeast Asian hub, without routing through Bangkok. For a Vietnamese agency it removes a connection. For everyone else, it adds a set of one-stop combinations into Phuket that did not exist before, and it makes Vietnam-plus-Thailand itineraries considerably easier to sequence — see our Phuket destination guide and the notes in our twin-centre routing guide.
What this changes for agencies outside Vietnam
If you do not sell from Vietnam, there are still three consequences worth planning around.
You are competing for the same ground capacity. Short-haul ASEAN demand books late and travels in the same windows your clients want. Vietnamese incentive groups of thirty and up land on exactly the vehicles, guides and mid-range room blocks that a European group of the same size needs. The practical answer is not to book earlier out of anxiety; it is to hold dates with a ground operator who can see both books.
Twin-centre selling just got easier. A direct Andaman link from Ho Chi Minh City makes a Vietnam-and-Thailand combination a genuinely sequenceable product rather than a routing puzzle, which is a real opportunity for long-haul agencies whose clients want two countries in one trip.
The product mix on the ground will shift toward what the biggest new buyer wants. Where a market is being courted this deliberately, guiding languages, menus and vehicle configurations follow. That is generally good for everyone, but it is worth knowing which way it is moving. Reading destination marketing early is a large part of what Thailand DMC services for travel agents are for.
How to sell it
- Treat the thirty-plus threshold as a design constraint. If a group is near it, the privileges attached to the campaign are worth checking against your build before you fix the party size.
- Quote the Andaman direct where it applies. For Vietnamese clients, a Phuket start rather than a Bangkok start removes a domestic leg and a night — our Thailand DMC transport team can rebuild an existing itinerary around the coastal arrival.
- Ask for language cover explicitly. Vietnamese-speaking guiding in Thailand is thinner than Mandarin or Russian. If it matters to the group, it has to be specified at quoting stage, not assumed — see guide services.
- Position sport as a package, not an add-on. The sports segment travels with equipment, needs venue access and often books around a fixture date that cannot move. It suits group and MICE handling more than standard leisure fulfilment.
- Watch the anniversary calendar. A fiftieth-anniversary framing usually means official events and civic programming through the campaign period, which affects venue availability in both directions.
What to verify before quoting
Two things in this story are firmer than the rest. The dates, venue and theme of ITE HCMC 2026 are consistent across the reporting we could reach, as is the Thailand Pavilion concept. The campaign mechanics — the exact terms of the group privileges, and how long the consumer campaign runs into 2027 — come from event announcements rather than published terms, so confirm them with TAT or your ground partner before you build a price around them. The same applies to the Ho Chi Minh City–Phuket frequency: four weekly was the reported launch pattern, and schedules on new routes move with the season.
What the ground partner carries here
A Thailand DMC sitting on both sides of this sees the thing an agency cannot: whether the guide, the vehicle and the room block are actually free on the dates a campaign has just made popular. For Vietnamese-market groups that means language-matched guiding where it exists and honest sourcing where it does not, incentive-scale transport, and coastal arrivals handled at Phuket rather than assumed through Bangkok. Send dates, pax and requirements to b2b@explera.co.th or use the trade desk, and see the source markets we handle for how we brief in-language.
Frequently asked questions
What was ITE HCMC 2026 and why does it matter to a Thailand seller?
It is Vietnam's leading international travel trade fair, held from 27 to 29 August 2026 in Ho Chi Minh City. It matters because TAT used it to set out, in public and in detail, which Vietnamese segments it intends to convert — which is effectively a forecast of who will be competing for Thai ground capacity next season.
Which Vietnamese segments is TAT targeting?
Millennials and Gen Z, families, incentive groups, luxury travellers and the sports segment. The named group-travel privileges point most clearly at incentive and affinity business.
Is there new air capacity, or only marketing?
There is capacity. A Ho Chi Minh City–Phuket service came out of a TAT and Vietnam Airlines memorandum and was reported as launching on 2 July 2026 at four flights a week. Confirm the current pattern before quoting, since new-route frequencies move seasonally.
I sell Thailand from Europe. Does any of this affect me?
Indirectly but genuinely. Short-haul ASEAN groups book late into the same vehicles and mid-range rooms your clients use, so the practical effect is on availability rather than on price positioning. The upside is that a direct Andaman link from Ho Chi Minh City makes two-country itineraries easier to build.
Can you handle Vietnamese-speaking groups?
Guiding in Vietnamese is available but thinner than in the larger source languages, so it has to be requested at quoting stage rather than assumed. Where a native-language guide is not available for a date, the honest answer is an English-speaking guide plus a group leader, and we say so upfront.
What should I confirm before I build a price?
The group-privilege terms and the campaign period, both of which come from event announcements rather than published conditions, and the current flight frequency on the Phuket route. Send the dates to the trade desk and we will confirm what is actually bookable.
