Vung Tau city eyes to be world-class tourism centre

Hanoi (VNA) – Vung Tau city in the southern coastal province of Ba Ria - Vung Tau is aiming to become an international-standard tourism centre, according to Chairman of the city People’s Committee Hoang Vu Thanh.

After three decades of development, Vung Tau has grown strongly to become a leading urban centre in the Southeast region, a national urban area for oil and gas and tourism, and one of the leading urban areas in the country in terms of per capita income.

Thanh told the Dien dan Doanh nghiep (Business Forum) magazine that the city boasts great potential for tourism development with rich cultural and cuisine values and beautiful landscapes and beaches. The city now has more than 1,300 accommodation establishments and over 15,000 rooms, about 850 restaurants and eateries. Typical tourism products vary from resort, swimming combined with MICE (Meeting Incentive Conference Event), sports and mountain climbing, water sports to eco-tourism.

In addition, Vung Tau also owns an 18-hole golf course in the downtown area, attracting high-class golfers at home and abroad.

For tourism products, there are currently 27 investment projects on a total area of 631.46 hectares. Among them, 19 are domestic-invested with a combined capital of 10.2 trillion VND (418 million USD), and eight FDI ones worth 5.86 billion USD. Eight have been put into operation, and five are underway, while the remaining 14 projects are in the process of completing land and construction procedures.

Each year, Vung Tau serves over 6 million domestic and foreign visitors. From 2019, Vung Tau has been recognised as an official member of the Tourism Promotion Organisation for Asia Pacific Cities (TPO). In 2022, Vung Tau was the only locality in Vietnam recognised to meet the ASEAN Clean Tourist City Standard twice.

The Politburo has also issued Resolution 24 with an orientation of turning the city into a high-quality, world-class tourism centre, stated Thanh.

Regarding the city’s contributions to Ba Ria - Vung Tau province’s socio-economic development, the official said that with its high and sustainable economic growth rate, Vung Tau is the leading locality in the province in terms of budget collection and payment, helping Ba Ria - Vung Tau maintain its place in the top group in the country in terms of State budget contribution.

The production value of the city’s economic sectors has reached 109 trillion VND, while average per capita income hits 8,000 USD a year.

Vung Tau also continues to focus on implementing breakthroughs in planning, construction, and smart urban management and development.

For the city’s orientations to 2030 with a vision to 2045, the city leader said that it will pay attention to increasing the proportion of the service sector in the economic structure, especially in tourism, finance, seaports and logistics; and develop the petrochemical industry and the downstream industrial ecosystem of this industry.

After 2030, Vung Tau city is envisioned to merge with the Phu My - Ba Ria - Long Dien urban area to become Ba Ria - Vung Tau City which will act as an important development pole in the Southeast region’s urban system, contributing to turning Ba Ria-Vung Tau province into one of the top 10 localities in Vietnam.

Looking forward to 2045, Vung Tau aims to basically becomes a green, smart, modern industrial city, and a world-class high-quality tourism centre, said Thanh.

The official went on to say that to develop Vung Tau city into a high-quality, world-class tourism centre, it will make efforts and proactively invest in modernising transport infrastructure, pursue the development orientation of green economy, circular economy and digital economy, develop high-quality tourism.

This requires the drastic and effective participation from the central level, the entire region, and the province itself, he added./.