Ho Chi Minh City just added another trio of trophies to its shelf. At the 2026 World Travel Awards Asia & Oceania and Indian Ocean ceremony, held in the Maldives on September 27, Vietnam's biggest city was named Asia's Leading Business Travel Destination and Asia's Leading Festival & Event Destination, while the city's Department of Tourism took the prize for Asia's Leading City Tourist Board.
If that sounds familiar, it should. The business travel and festival titles have now gone to HCM City four years running (2022-2025 stretch extended into this year), and the tourist board award has landed three times in a row. At last year's edition the city actually picked up four categories, so 2026 is a slight trim rather than a slump.
Why does a business travel hub keep winning? Because Ho Chi Minh City is Vietnam's commercial engine — the country's centre for trade, finance and innovation. That means real infrastructure for events: large convention and exhibition venues, a deep pool of hotel rooms, improving transport links, and airlines and operators with the capacity to move delegates around. Layer on the street food, nightlife and cultural scenes the city is known for, and it's an easy sell for conferences that want to feel less like work.
The city's tourism authority is also trying to widen what visitors actually do there. Beyond the downtown core, it's promoting trips along the canals and rivers, out to coastal and island spots, and into ecological areas on the city's fringes — a nudge for event organisers and leisure travellers alike to see more than District 1.
The awards are handed out by the World Travel Awards, an industry programme running since 1993 that recognises destinations, airlines, hotels and tourism bodies across regional ceremonies worldwide. For travellers, they're a rough proxy for a destination that's investing in its visitor economy — and in HCM City's case, the city is leaning into it with a push behind its 'Vibrant HCM City' branding and a stated focus on improving service quality.
Who should care? If you're planning a trip to Vietnam, this is reassurance that the country's southern hub is well set up for a visit — easy flight connections, plenty of accommodation at every price point, and a growing menu of things to do beyond the usual city-break checklist. If you organise meetings or events in Asia, the run of awards reflects a city actively courting that business. And if you just want excellent food and energy, well, that was never really in question.
