Nguyễn Minh Luân, vice chairman of the Cà Mau Province People’s Committee, speaks at a conference held to review the tourism linkage programme between HCM City and the 13 localities in the Mekong Delta in Cà Mau on December 10. — VNA/VNS Photo

CA MAU — HCM City and the 12 provinces and Cần Thơ City in the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta plan to further strengthen their links in tourism management, development and promotion of tourism products and human resource development.

Speaking at a conference held to review their collaboration during this year on December 10, Nguyễn Minh Luân, vice chairman of the hosts, the Cà Mau Province People’s Committee, said it is one of the key regional linkage programmes and has received special attention from all partners.

He said co-operation to develop tourism is imperative.

HCM City and the Mekong Delta provinces and city have been collaborating through many innovative activities, “attracting the interest and participation of the business community and tourism associations and contributing to creating… positive changes to the region’s tourism,” he said.

He believed that with their close links and the initiative, creativity and perseverance of tourism management agencies and tourism businesses, tourism in the delta and HCM City would develop rapidly.

Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Dung, deputy director of the Bến Tre Province Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the programme has helped create a favourable environment for tourism development in each locality and the region in general.

“Bến Tre tourism has prospered, the number of visitors and revenues both increased, room occupancy rates during holidays reached 70 - 80 per cent.”

Lê Trương Hiền Hòa, deputy director of the HCM City Department of Tourism, said the programme has helped build “a great brand for the region” and advertise and market it in the domestic and international tourist markets, and created “a common space” to tourism companies and training facilities to enhance connectivity.

This year domestic tourists remained the mainstay for the southern region, he said, adding that travel companies in the city have sent over 2.7 million tourists to the delta under the programme to experience its culture, landscapes, rivers, and fruit orchards and enjoy the southern cuisine.

Localities in the delta have hosted farm trips and programmes that seek to connect travel companies in HCM City and tourism services providers in the delta with the participation of about 600 businesses, he said.

Upcoming activities

The Mekong (Cửu Long) Delta has great potential to become an important resort destination in the southern region. — Photo courtesy of nld.com.vn

Delegates at the conference agreed that the good results notwithstanding, the linkage programme has also faced difficulties and challenges that need to be resolved soon to enable tourism to develop in a sustainable manner and the region to become an ideal destination for tourists.

Nguyễn Minh Triết, director of Saigontourist for the south-western region, said localities in the region need to invest in comprehensive tourism infrastructure and further improve the quality of human resources in the industry, besides having robust promotion policies to attract tourists.

Delegates suggested that each province needs to identify its strengths to develop unique tourism products.

In his address at the conclusion of the conference, Dương Anh Đức, deputy chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee, underlined the importance of tourism to the economy, saying it not only creates jobs but also helps many other industries develop.

"Developing tourism is also a way to introduce the image of the country and the cultural beauty of the Vietnamese people to [the outside world].”

He emphasised that to develop tourism, there must be unique products and the quality of services needs to be improved to satisfy visitors so that they would promote the country by word of mouth.

But adequate investments are needed for tourism to develop, he said.

He promised that HCM City would help the delta localities introduce their unique tourism products to other countries using information technology.

The delta, identified as one of the seven main tourist regions of the country, is rich in resources, including over 28,000 km of canals, a diverse eco-system and unique cultural values. All these give it great potential to become an important resort destination in the southern region. — VNS