Ba Ngan Floating Market in Nga Bay town in Hau Giang province is crowded with boats selling fruits ahead of the Lunar New Year. (Photo: VNA) The MekongDelta, which was identified as one of the seven tourist regions of the country,has rich tourism resources, with over 28,000 km of canals, a diverse ecosystem,and unique cultural values. As a result, it boasts great potential to become animportant resort destination in the southern region.
However,tourism development in the Mekong Delta remains very modest compared to othertourist areas in the country.
Despiteefforts to lure visitors to the region, tourism products in the Mekong Deltaare not diverse and attractive.
Manyprovinces in the region have similar tourism products, confusing tourists whenthey choose a destination for their travel.
Tran Anh Thu,Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of An Giang province, said touristsusually chose the first destination in HCM City, the international gateway tothe region, and then the second destination as sea tourism in the centralregion or Phu Quoc Island in Kien Giang province or river tourism in the MekongDelta.
Thu saidtourism products in the Mekong Delta were less attractive to tourists,especially international visitors.
Fruitgardens in Tien Giang somehow bring the same experience to tourists when theytravel to Vinh Long and Ben Tre, according to the official. Likewise, culturaltourism in Tra Vinh, Bac Lieu, and Soc Trang is similar to that in An Giang,and eco-tourism in Dong Thap, An Giang, Bac Lieu, Long An, and Ben Tre is notdifferent.
He addedthat each locality needed to develop its unique tourism products and establishpromotion links to develop regional tour packages to lure tourists.
Poorinfrastructure
Duong DucMinh, Deputy Director of the HCM City's Tourism and Economic DevelopmentResearch Institute, said community-based tourism would be an excellent materialfor tourism development strategy in the Mekong Delta.
However,community-based tourism had not been integrated into tourism planning anddevelopment, requiring localities to have policies to develop the model in thefuture.
Pointing outweaknesses in tourism development, Deputy CEO of Saigontourist Group Truong DucHung said in many community-based tourism sites, the transport infrastructurewas still inadequate, and services remained poor.
A shortageof qualified human resources had hindered the development of some services. Inaddition, there was little information about tourist attractions in the MekongDelta, making it difficult for international visitors to access them.
Hung saidlocalities in the region must strengthen marketing strategies and have firmstimulus promotion policies to attract tourists.
Regionalcoordination
For theMekong Delta to become an attractive destination, many experts believe thatlocalities need to strengthen regional coordination and links among oneanother, especially with HCM City, to diversify tourism products and connectservice supply chains between HCM City to 13 localities in the Mekong Delta.
ViceChairman of the An Giang Provincial People's Committee Tran Anh Thu saidecological and spiritual tourism was a growing trend in the world, especiallyafter the COVID-19 pandemic.
Theprovince's most popular spiritual tourism destination, Ba Chua Xu Temple in ChauDoc city's Nui Sam Mountain, welcomed about five million tourists last year,creating jobs for more than 400,000 people.
HCM City is the first destination for domesticand international tourists. Therefore, tourism development between HCM City and13 Mekong Delta localities will create attractive tourism values.
Deputy Director of HCM City's Department ofTourism Bui Thi Ngoc Hieu agreed, saying that some tour packages from HCM Cityto the Mekong Delta had received a large number of tourists after a short timeof coordination.
A 1-day tour from HCM City to Tien Giang, BenTre, or Long An, and a 2-day tour from HCM City to Tien Giang – Ben Tre; BenTre – Tra Vinh; and Long An – Dong Thap are among popular travel packages. Inaddition, the river tour from the Sai Gon River to the Tien River, which waslaunched this year, has received positive feedback.
Other multipleday tours have been built to servetourists. For example, Saigon Tourism Corporation has set up three tourslasting between four and six days from HCM City to the Mekong Delta provinces,which feature the identity and characteristics of the life, people and cultureof the Mekong River.
HCM City has worked with the Mekong Delta toreduce food costs and free admission tickets to lure tourists.
By the end of 2022, the Mekong Delta wasestimated to have welcomed over 44 million tourists, an increase of 201.2% overthe same period in 2021. As a result, tourism revenue of Mekong Delta reachednearly VNĐ34 trillion, up 216.9% over the same period of 2021.
Currently, domestic tourists account fortwo-thirds of the total.
Bold plans
Experts said bold moves were necessary todevelop tourism in the Mekong Delta to a new level.
Deputy General Director of Vietravel HuynhPhan Phuong Hoang said that shortly, localities in the region needed to focuson investing in synchronous tourism infrastructures, such as buildingexpressways connecting HCM City to the Mekong Delta, solving the traffic jam atTrung Luong – My Thuan Highway at peak times and urgently implementing theconstruction of Dai Ngai Bridge to develop tourism products between Tra Vinhand Soc Trang.
Four or five star hotels, resorts, and gardenresorts must be associated with the typical river and water nature of theMekong Delta, developing tourism products with incredible prices to boost thenumber of visitors.
Authorities should have policies to encouragelocal people to do tourism, such as community-based and green tourism, anddevelop more eco-agricultural tourism products.
Thang suggested that tourism products of theMekong Delta must serve tourists of different ages, such as discovery tourismfor young people and resort tourism for the elderly.
Each province should identify a strong tourismproduct, then cooperate to develop attractive tourism products to competewith that in the Southeast Asian region, she added./.
VNA
