Diversifying Tourism Products, Aiming for Sustainable Development

The province is determined that tourism will be an important economic sector with high growth, rapid speed, high quality, expert professionalism and a synchronous and modern technical infrastructure system by 2030.

My Tho Marina

Tapping potential strengths

Lying in the Mekong Delta and the southern key economic zone, Tien Giang is well-known for not only lush, fruit-laden orchards but also as a land of excellent people linked with cultural and historical legacies carrying locally typical imprints. This is a favorable condition for socioeconomic development and tourism development.

Tien Giang's tourism resources are rich, with the Go Cong sea waters and a 32 km coastline, over 60,000 ha of locally indigenous fruit gardens, flooded forests in the Dong Thap Muoi region in Tan Phuoc district, and Melaleuca forest reserves and their surrounding buffer zones.

Moreover, Tien Giang province’s tourism strengths are also associated with ecological historical and cultural legacies like Rach Gam - Xoai Mut historical relic, Ap Bac victory relic, National Hero Truong Dinh Temple and Thu Khoa Huan Temple. Besides, Tien Giang is home to 212 folk festivals and nine revolutionary festivals, of which five festivals are ranked as intangible cultural heritages.

According to statistics, Tien Giang is currently home to 185 ranked historical and cultural relics, including three special national relics and 17 national relics associated with national heroes and historical and cultural events. The province now has 327 hotels with a total of 5,532 qualified tourist rooms, 69 travel businesses, 560 tourist transport vehicles (tourist ships), over 300 tour guides, 46 tourist attractions/sites, and 10 tourist service businesses.

The province also launched many tourism development programs and plans, especially Resolution 11-NQ/TU of the Tien Giang Provincial Party Committee on tourism development to 2020 and further to 2030. After more than three years of implementation, tourist arrivals have increased (by an annualized average of over 15%, highest in the Mekong Delta). Technical facilities and quality of human resources for tourism development meet sector-specific requirements.

In addition, cooperation and connectivity are increasingly boosted and becoming more practical. Businesses have actively connected tours and routes and expanded markets. Attention is paid to training and fostering tourism human resources and State tourism administration is reinforced.

In the first 10 months of 2024, the province attracted 1.34 million visitors, up 15.4% year on year and equal to 80.9% of the plan. International visitors totaled nearly 475,000, up 37% year on year and equal 86.4% of the plan. Gross tourism revenue was up 15.6% year on year to VND920 billion, reaching 73.6% of the plan.

Tien Giang hoped to welcome 1.65 million visitors in the year, including 550,0000 international visitors. Tourism revenue was forecast at VND1,250 billion.

Tourism will be made an important economic sector

According to the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Tien Giang province will focus on strongly developing tourism to motivate the development of other industries and fields, particularly eco-tourism, resort, sea tourism, rural agriculture, culture - sports and medical tourism. It will bolster its cooperation with Can Tho City and Mekong Delta localities to form eco-tourism, garden tourism and resort routes within the province and with other provinces. Tien Giang strives to make tourism an important economic sector by 2030, with a high growth rate, rapid speed, high quality, professional expertise, and synchronous and modern infrastructure system.

To achieve these goals, Tien Giang focuses on diversifying the market and developing river and garden eco-tourism, cultural tourism and community tourism, imbued with the local cultural identity. It will develop agritourism products associated with such activities as rural sightseeing, homestay, traditional craft villages, cultural experiences and people's lives.

In addition to tapping traditional tourist markets such as Japan, South Korea, China, Western Europe and North America, Tien Giang will concentrate on approaching new potential tourist markets such as the Middle East, Southern Europe, South America, India and the Mekong subregion countries.

For the domestic market, the province will actively cooperate with provinces and cities in the region to develop safe inter-regional tourist routes and destinations; and robustly expand the local market and visitors from Ho Chi Minh City, Southeast provinces, Hanoi and some central provinces.

Along with improving infrastructure quality and investing in restoring and developing tourism products, the Tien Giang tourism sector will accelerate the application of electronic marketing and 4.0 technology; boost tourism promotion and advertising in various forms through its tourism websites, electronic tourism maps and Tien Giang tourism application for tourism information search on smart devices.

The province will call for investors to sustainably develop the "hospitality industry", with particular focus on attracting investment to build high-class hotels, upgrading and renovating existing accommodation facilities, developing overnight tourism models at local homes in Thoi Son Islet, Ngu Hiep Islet, Tan Phong Islet, Cai Be Tourist Area and other attractions.

Siding with businesses and investors, the province will step up administrative reform, improve the investment and business environment, speed up tourism development investment projects, and remove difficulties to support them.

With the "Outstanding products - Professional services - Convenient and simple procedures - Competitive prices - Clean and beautiful environment - Safe, civilized and friendly destinations" motto, we believe that Tien Giang tourism will increasingly develop to become a key economic sector and contribute positively to local socioeconomic development.