Tourism in Ho Chi Minh City and 13 Mekong River Delta localities will 'revive'

Cooperation is created to develop together

At the Conference on implementing the cooperation program for tourism  development in Ho Chi Minh City and 13 provinces and cities in the Mekong River Delta region, the Chairman of the People's Committee of Bac Lieu province - Pham Van Thieu emphasized that the Mekong River Delta region has an important strategic geographical position, which has many favorable conditions to attract domestic and foreign tourists. It still has a lot of spare areas to cooperate with Ho Chi Minh City, thereby creating a unique tourism space, meeting many market segments, promoting the spread of inter-regional tourism economy if there are appropriate mechanisms and policies as well as agreements to accompany by domestic and foreign businesses and investors.

Therefore, Bac Lieu province hopes that leaders of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, General Department of Tourism, organizations, businesses, investors together with leaders of provinces and cities provide solutions to strengthen connection and cooperation in tourism development.

The Long An delegation participate in the program of alliance and cooperation in tourism development between Ho Chi Minh City and 13 provinces and cities in the Mekong River Delta

Bac Lieu province proposed that the leaders of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism should coordinate with relevant ministries and sectors soon to petition the Government and the Prime Minister to support localities in developing tourism products, advertising and promoting investment; increasing investment in infrastructure for the Mekong River Delta region to create favorable conditions for economic development of tourism in the region; continuing to support calling for businesses and investors’ interest in investing in tourism service infrastructure.
In the process of formulating the National Tourism Planning Scheme in the period of 2021-2030, with a vision to 2045, it is necessary to focus on bringing potential tourism development areas of the Mekong River Delta into the overall planning in order to have orientation and save development investment resources, etc.

According to the director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism - Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa, in the period of 2019-2022, Ho Chi Minh City and 13 provinces and cities in the Mekong River Delta region have initially achieved numerous results such as forming three connected tourist routes, including the Alluvial roads (HCMC - Tien Giang - Vinh Long - Can Tho - Hau Giang - Soc Trang - Bac Lieu - Ca Mau); the Non Nuoc charming tourist route (HCMC - Tien Giang - Ben Tre - Tra Vinh); and the colors of the border region tourist route (HCMC - Long An - Dong Thap - An Giang - Kien Giang).

The Department of Tourism of Ho Chi Minh City, in the role of Assistance Team leader, has mobilized tourist accommodation establishments, service businesses, tourist attractions and zones to develop dual stimulus policies to reduce food costs, offer free admission, etc. Provinces and cities have sent the list of campaigning sites to join the stimulus policies to Ho Chi Minh City with a popular stimulus rate of 10-20 percent. The travel businesses of Ho Chi Minh City have built more than 50 tourism programs (tours) to stimulate demand from Ho Chi Minh City to the provinces and cities of the Mekong River Delta region. All of these programs are introduced on the city's tourism stimulus website.

Tourism development is promoted in the new situation

 The development of tourism in Long An province cannot be separated from the connection with neighboring localities, especially the Mekong River Delta and Ho Chi Minh City. This is considered one of the solutions and new directions to "awaken" tourism potential of the province. The Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee - Pham Tan Hoa said that Long An was a fruitful area in the Mekong River Delta, which is rich in historical traditions and potentials for tourism development.

However, during the past time, Long An’s tourism development has not been commensurate with its potential. Over the past two years, due to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, tourism of Vietnam in general and of each locality in particular is facing unprecedented difficulties, especially in the desperate year 2021.

Leaders of Ho Chi Minh City and provinces and cities in the Mekong River Delta signed a cooperation agreement on tourism development and launched "Re-opening tourism under new normal conditions"

However, since the pandemic in the province was under control, people have gradually transitioned to the "new normal" state, and the tourism industry as well as other production and business industries have slowly recovered with the mission of ensuring development and safety. All tourist areas and attractions in the province are ready to welcome visitors after a long interruption caused by the pandemic since October 16, 2021.

Having the advantage of most destinations being outdoor tourist sites, close to nature and experiential, Long An tourism industry has been and is being interested by tourists when choosing their own travel itinerary. Tourism zones and spots in the province have seized the opportunity to recover after the pandemic. Most notably, during the three days of Lunar New Year holiday in 2022, Long An province attracted over 30,000 tourist arrivals, witnessing an increase of about 50 percent over the same period. This is a positive sign after being affected by the pandemic for a long time, especially for localities that are promoting tourism activities like Long An.

“The signing ceremony on tourism alliance and  cooperation between Ho Chi Minh City and the provinces and cities of the Mekong River Delta region that took place in Bac Lieu province recently is the current trend, creating great opportunities for Long An to develop tourism. In the current situation, in order to promote tourism, Long An is focusing on five important factors, which are strengthening the state’s management of tourism; developing diversified tourism products having typical characteristics of the province; connecting and promoting tourism work; focusing on training human resources, including state agencies and enterprise to provide a good workforce for tourism; strengthening the development of socialization and investment in tourism, etc." - the Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee - Pham Tan Hoa affirmed.

Provinces and cities in the Mekong River Delta need to connect regions to develop tourism (Photo: the Happyland entertainment complex, Ben Luc district)

Also at this conference, the Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism - Doan Van Viet said that Ho Chi Minh City and 13 provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta region identified the focus in the alliance and cooperation as well as signed regulations and agreements across regions. This is an important basis for localities to promote the implementation of restarting practical and effective tourism activities in the coming time.

The Deputy Minister suggested that localities should ensure that tourist destinations are safely controlled, tourism activities are strictly organized, having a synchronous, scientific and effective system; plans are proactively prepared to deal with risks in the process of reopening tourism activities. The localities must diversify and improve the quality of tourism products, in which the focus is on restoring river tourism products, tourism associated with the exploitation of agricultural and ecological activities; garden cultural tourism; recreational tourism products along the river, sea and island resorts, etc.

Travel agencies promote their role in connecting individual attractions in the region into a comprehensive program to explore the whole region for tourists with the aim of meeting the maximum travel demand and bringing longer and more diverse experiences for visitors. At the same time, localities need to upgrade material and technical infrastructure; strengthen tourism human resources; promote communication links and marketing to attract visitors; attract investment in the tourism sector; apply high technology in tourism activities; improve competitiveness of tourist destinations, etc.../.

By Thanh Nga - Translated by Duc Tam

Source: https://baolongan.vn/du-lich-tp-hcm-va-13-tinh-thanh-vung-dong-bang-song-cuu-long-se-hoi-sinh-a132814.html