Mekong Delta needs more tourism products to attract visitors: conference

The Mang Thít Contemporary Heritage Site in Cửu Long (Mekong Delta) province of Vĩnh Long. The Delta regio has many potential to develop tourism. — Photo baodantoc.vn

MEKONG DELTA — Tourism companies and operators in the Cửu Long (Mekong Delta) provinces need to be more creative in offering new products and services Hà Văn Siêu, deputy head of the Việt Nam National Administration of Tourism, has said.

Speaking at a conference on promoting trade and tourism investment between HCM City and the delta province of Vĩnh Long, Siêu referred to the extremely rich tourism potential of the delta.

He pointed to the untapped tourism potential of places like the Mang Thít Contimporary Heritage Site with its extremely unique cultural value that could not be found anywhere else.

The site must be developed as a tourism symbol of Vĩnh Long Province, he said, adding there is also great potential for agriculture tourism in the region, and companies should create new tourism products around them.

Other participants agreed with him that tourism in the delta, Vĩnh Long in particular, could be further developed since the region is close to HCM City, a tourism hub of the country.

The co-operation between the city and delta provinces like Vĩnh Long is imporant to exploit the potential of the region, they added.

Lữ Quang Ngời, chairman of Vĩnh Long Province, said HCM City plays an important part in the socio-economic development strategy of the Southern Key Economic Zone and in fact the entire country as it is a huge consumer market and a gate connecting Việt Nam with regional and global markets.

So co-oepration with the city would provide momentum for delta provinces to develop, he added.

Phan Thị Thắng, deputy chairwoman of the city People’s Committee, said co-operation between HCM City and delta provinces including Vĩnh Long would create conditions for investors to make market development plans and expand production.

In another development, industry businesses groups in Vĩnh Long and HCM City signed agreements to develop trade and tourism.

The province signed memorandums of understanding with investors totally worth VNĐ5.5 trillion (US$250 million).

Việt Nam reopened to tourism after COVID-19 pandemic and quickly recovered, and is the fastest growing tourism market in the Asia Pacific now. 

In the year to date, there have been 91 million domestic tourists. To put this in perspective, the comparable figure in 2019, before COVID-19 began, was 85 million. 

There have also been 2.3 million foreign tourists. The country targets five million visitors for the full year.