Like a beautiful princess, oversleeping for many years in her own dream by the Vam Co River then suddenly awakened fresh one day, Tay Ninh has become a must-visit destination in an adventure in Viet Nam for many tourists.

"The sleeping beauty by Vam Co River"

Rarely does a province in the southeast of Viet Nam have as much potential and favourable conditions for tourism development as Tay Ninh. Located in Viet Nam's Southern Key Economic Region with a 240-kilometre-long border with Cambodia, Tay Ninh is home to 16 border gates, including two international border gates (Moc Bai and Xa Mat) directly connecting HCM City and Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh. Known as the holy land of Caodaism, Tay Ninh is also located on the Trans-Asia route - an important arterial road in organising tours and tourist routes of Viet Nam to ASEAN countries and vice versa.

Dew-soaked Rice Paper in Tay Ninh

Many experts claim that Tay Ninh is so endowed by nature that it has all kinds of experiences on offer. This place is also known as the "holy land" - the place of origin of many unique beliefs and religions nowhere else to be found. Tay Ninh is also wild and mysterious enough with Lo Go-Xa Mat National Park and Asean Heritage garden with a unique ecosystem, Ma Thien Lanh valley - the little northwestern of the east, or Southeast Asia's largest artificial freshwater lake: Dau Tieng Lake, Baden Mount - the roof of the southern region, etc., which all attract travellers.

Ba Pagoda Complex on Baden Mountain

However, all these advantages have only amounted to potential for a long time. Tourism is still seasonal with a major focus on festivals. Only about 30 per cent of domestic visitors stay overnight.

Tay Ninh tourism to awaken

Considering tourism development a key economic sector, Tay Ninh Province has formulated a long-term strategy and invited strategic investors to join hands to exploit the forgotten “gold mine” on the holy land.

Baden cable car takes visitors to the roof of the southern region

In January 2020, Sun Group put into operation a modern cable car system with the world's largest cable car station in Ba Den Mountain Tourist Area. The cable car system not only shortens travel time but also improves the experience of tourists, opening up many opportunities for the development of Tay Ninh tourism. Besides Ma Thien Lanh, Ba Den Pagoda and Dau Tieng Lake, people now talk about the stunning Van Son station, about fantastic trips between the clouds, special music shows and attractive cuisine on the top of the mountain.

Van Son full moon festival at Sun World Ba Den Mountain in 2020

Only after less than a year in operation, the new cable has become an important push for the impressive transformation of the beauty on the bank of Vam Co Dong River. Nguyen Huy Cuong, Deputy Director of Sun World Ba Den Mountain, said that despite great difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in the first two months of the fourth quarter of 2020 alone, the number of visitors to Ba Den Mountain by the cable car system reached more 136,000 arrivals, up 98 per cent from the same period in 2019.

While the tourism industry in many localities struggled amid the pandemic, thanks to the motivation from strategic investors such as Sun Group, Tay Ninh still achieved optimistic results. According to Nguyen Thanh Tien, Director of Tay Ninh Provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, despite two lockdown periods due to the pandemic, the number of tourists to this locality in 2020 is estimated to reach 4.7 million arrivals (including visitors and visitors with overnight accommodation), reaching 87 per cent of the same period in 2019. Notably, there were 2.2 million visitors to famous tourist areas and destinations such as Ba Den Mountain and Tay Ninh Holy See, which is a positive signal for the tourism industry. Visitors to Ba Den Mountain Tourist Area accounted for 98 per cent. It is predicted that by 2025, Ba Den Mountain National Tourism Site alone will attract about 5 million visitors per year and this figure will increase to 8 million by 2035.

Cuisine on the top of Ba Den Mountain

“Currently, Tay Ninh Province is giving priority to diversified tourism development. Building Ba Den Mountain National Tourism Area into a unique and highly competitive tourist centre is one of the key and breakthrough tasks of the local tourism industry according to Resolution of the 11th Tay Ninh Provincial Party Central Committee for the 2020-2025 term. The high determination of the whole political system will create all favourable conditions for strategic investors to implement projects to develop Ba Den Mountain Tourist Area into the centre for tourism development in not only Tay Ninh Province but also the southeast region and the country of Viet Nam," said Nguyen Thanh Tien, Director of Tay Ninh Provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.