author(s)
Bui Duc Sinh, Nguyen Van Tien, Nguyen Van Thuy, Tran Lan Anh and Ngo Thi Xuan Binh

abstract
With the tremendous explosion of the event industry in recent years, it is drawing attention as a robust economic force in global development. Yet, not only do the organizers not place social and environmental responsibility as the anchor of organizing events currently but they also have a shortage of academic literature that provides guidance to event organizers as to how to develop a plan for sustainable events. This research attempts to investigate the current situation of the event industry and assess the awareness and understanding of the sustainable event amid the event organizers in Ho Chi Minh City. A structured qualitative interview was used to collect data in five event agencies in Ho Chi Minh City by interviewing the event planners who directly build event planning. The finding revealed that most of the respondents had the right awareness of the concept of the sustainable event. Although event planners have tried to implement sustainable measures into their events, they have only ceased at the reduction of single-use products or the application of environmentally friendly gifts. The information can help event agencies and planners to gain more insight into the opportunities and challenges of sustainable events in order to provide suitable policies and long-term plans for holding them in Ho Chi Minh City in particular as well as Vietnam and global in general.