ACV Signs 2026-2030 Tourism MOU with Hồ Chí Minh City Tourism Department

Overview

Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), the state-owned operator of the country’s 22 commercial airports, signed a 2026-2030 cooperation memorandum with Hồ Chí Minh City’s Tourism Department on 21 October. The agreement covers joint route development, destination promotion tied to the airport system, and managed tourism growth at Côn Đảo, with connectivity through Tân Sơn Nhất and the future Long Thành international airports named as priorities. For ACV, listed on UPCOM, the MOU is a demand-side arrangement rather than a capital commitment.

Key Facts

• The memorandum was signed on 21 October and runs for the 2026-2030 period.
• Signatories are the Hồ Chí Minh City Tourism Department, represented by Director Phạm Huy Bình, and ACV.
• ACV operates 22 airports: 10 international and 12 domestic.
• Tân Sơn Nhất and Long Thành international airports are identified as the key connectivity nodes in the agreement.
• Hồ Chí Minh City estimates 8.52 million international and 39.57 million domestic visitor arrivals in the first nine months of 2026.
• Total tourism revenue for the period is estimated at VND 282,696 billion, up 43.4% year on year and equal to 85.7% of the full-year plan.
• The agreement includes data and market-information sharing between the two parties and coordination with airlines to sustain existing routes.

What Happened

At the signing ceremony, Phạm Huy Bình, Director of the Hồ Chí Minh City Tourism Department, framed aviation as a strategic input to destination competitiveness, describing airports as the first point of contact that shapes visitor impressions of the city. Under the memorandum, the two sides will exchange information on markets, policies and route-development plans, and will work with airlines to maintain existing services while promoting new routes to Hồ Chí Minh City and linked localities.

The Côn Đảo component is the most operationally specific element. The parties intend to calibrate visitor volumes to the handling capacity of the island’s airport and to the destination’s carrying capacity, tying tourism growth to conservation of historical, cultural and marine-ecosystem values. The memorandum does not disclose any financial commitment, investment value or binding traffic target; it is a framework for coordination rather than a commercial contract.

Market Context

ACV closed at VND 41,700 on 21 October 2026 on UPCOM, the unlisted public company market. The ticker trades as an infrastructure and airport-concession story whose earnings are driven by passenger throughput and aeronautical charges rather than by tourism marketing. The MOU lands against a strong demand backdrop: city tourism receipts rose 43.4% year on year in the first nine months of 2026, and the 85.7% plan attainment implies a heavy fourth-quarter weighting to hit the annual target. Long Thành’s construction timeline remains the dominant swing factor for ACV’s medium-term capacity and capital expenditure profile.

Strategic Significance

The thesis here is demand aggregation rather than new capital. ACV’s regulated revenue scales with passengers, so a formal channel with the city’s tourism authority to seed new routes and smooth seasonal traffic supports utilisation at Tân Sơn Nhất and, eventually, Long Thành without requiring ACV to fund airline incentives itself. The Côn Đảo language is equally telling: capacity-constrained airports benefit from demand management that protects service quality and avoids the congestion costs that erode aeronautical yield. For long-term holders, the agreement is best read as incremental support for volume growth and as evidence of coordination ahead of Long Thành’s opening, not as a near-term earnings catalyst.

What to Watch

• Long Thành progress disclosures, including construction milestones and any revised opening date.
• ACV’s passenger throughput reporting for Q4 2026 and full-year 2026, to test whether city arrivals hold pace.
• Announcements of specific new international routes to Tân Sơn Nhất involving named carriers.
• Any Côn Đảo airport capacity upgrade or slot-allocation policy following the memorandum.
• Hồ Chí Minh City full-year 2026 tourism revenue against the VND 330,000 billion-scale annual plan implied by the 85.7% attainment figure.