At the conference (Photo: baomoi) Tra Vinh (VNA) – Boasting a coastline of more than 162 kilometres with criss-crossing canals, lush carpet of orchard gardens and kaleidoscope of ethnic cultures, the Mekong Delta’s eastern coastal sub-region has huge potential to develop tourism, heard a recent conference held in Tra Vinh province.
However, more than 200 experts at the November 17 event held that local tourism development is a far cry from its natural advantages.
Last year, the sub-region welcomed only 4.93 million out of 34.5 million visitors to the Mekong Delta, with tourism revenue accounting for 23.3 percent of the region’s total 11.3 trillion VND (488.78 million USD).
Tenuous connection within the tourism sector as well as shortage of professional human resources and attractive policies to attract domestic and foreign investments should be handled to boost the non-smoke industry’s development in the sub-region, they said.
According to Assoc. Prof. and Dr. Bui Van Trinh from the Can Tho University, besides investing heavily in infrastructure, provinces in the eastern coastal area should pick out their tourism staples. In addition, they should work together to pen a popularisation campaign for their quality products to attract visitors.
Capitalising on spiritual tourism will help local tourism take off, M.A Duong Duc Minh from the Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities suggested, saying that this is a distinct advantage that not many places have.
Meanwhile, M.A Bui Hoang Tan from the Can Tho University laid stress on the tourism connectivity between the east and the west sub-regions as it is significant for the whole region to branch out sea, waterway, eco-agricultural and spiritual tourism to lure more travellers.-VNA
VNA
