The second Culture, Tourism and Southern Cuisine Week opened on Sunday (October 25) in Trà Vinh Province. — Photo nhandan.com.vn

 HCM CITY — A new community-based tourist site on Cồn Hô (Hô Islet) in the Mekong Delta province of Trà Vinh has opened as part of an effort to diversify tourism products in the province.

The 22-hectare islet in Càng Long District’s Đức Mỹ Commune on the Cổ Chiên River is ecologically diverse and has many fruit gardens, offering favourable conditions for eco-tourism and exploration of natural landscapes.

Dương Hoàng Sum, director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the islet is home to 24 households with 49 residents who will work together to develop the site and plant flowers and fruits.

Trà Vinh has natural diversity ranging from the delta, orchard gardens, and islets on the Tiền and Hậu rivers to the sea.

It is home to more than 310,000 ethnic Khmer people, accounting for nearly 32 per cent of population in the province.

Ok Om Bok, Sene Dolta and Chol Chnam Thmay festivals are the annual major traditional festivals of the Khmer, with huge potential for development of cultural and spiritual tourism and community-based eco-tourism, Sum said.

An underdeveloped tourism infrastructure and limited tourism marketing and promotion have resulted in sluggish tourism development, he said.

The province will promote new tourism products and build tourist destinations in each district.

Two festivals 

Visitors at a trade fair, one of events at the second Culture, Tourism and Southern Cuisine Week festival. — VNA/VNS Photo

The province released a tourism brand identity at the second Culture, Tourism and Southern Cuisine Week festival that opened on Sunday. 

The cultural, tourism and cuisine festival is being held concurrently with the Ok Om Bok Festival, also called the Festival of Worshipping the Moon.

The one-week events aim to preserve traditional cultural identities and promote tourism.

A variety of activities are being held, including a tourism and trade fair with more than 370 booths, a Mekong Delta tourism exhibition, a Khmer traditional costume competition, an exhibition of typical Khmer products, folk games, and the Khmer long boat race.

The festivals will run until the end of this month.

The number of tourist arrivals to the province this year has dropped by 20 per cent compared to the same period last year due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. — VNS