RIVER TOURISM: Visitors travel by boat along the Bến Lức River at Bến Lức District in the Cửu Long Delta Province of Long An. File photo from mylongan.vn

LONG AN — The Cửu Long (Mekong Delta) province of Long An has approved the Vàm Cỏ Farm stay in Bến Lức District as a new provincial tourist destination.

Only 30 kilometres away from HCM City, the farm stay is situated along the Bến Lức River, covering an area of 2.5 hectares.

The venue offers a series of activities such as farming, camping, swimming, boat travelling, fish catching, fruit picking, folk games, and specialty dishes.

The farm stay also hosts performances of the tài tử and vọng cổ (nostalgic tunes), genres that originated in southern Việt Nam more than a hundred years ago.

TRADITIONAL TUNES - Performances of tài tử music at the Vàm Cỏ Farm Stay. File photo from mylongan.vn

Lê Thị Hồng Thủy, deputy director of the province’s Tourism Promotion Centre, said, “The recognition of Vàm Cỏ Farm stay as a provincial tourism destination aims to offer new tourism products and services to attract tourists.”

The province now has four provincial tourism destinations, including the Phước Lộc Thọ Ancient Village in Đức Hoà District, the Tân Lập Floating Village in Mộc Hoà District, Chavi Garden and Vàm Cỏ Farm Stay in Bến Lức.

The province has asked all tourism areas to preserve and develop tourism resources, encourage the local community to participate in providing tourism services for tourists, and ensure environmental hygiene.

The destinations also must maintain order and security to ensure safety for tourists.

Thủy emphasized that: “Long An always keeps its eye on the tourism sector, encouraging local tourism businesses to focus on developing new products and upgrading current products to provide the best services to visitors.”

She added that the province also offered favourable conditions for tourism agencies to create package tours at preferential prices to attract tourists.

DELICIOUS DISH - Canh chua cá chốt (sour and sweet naked fish soup), a speciality dish of Long An. Photo courtesy of Vàm Cỏ Farm stay

Long An is popular for eco-tourism with tours of rivers, agriculture, craft villages and medicinal plant farming.

The province has 125 historical, cultural, architectural, artistic, landscape and archaeological sites recognised as provincial and national heritage sites.

It also has speciality dishes such as sour fermented pork, canh chua cá chốt (sour and sweet naked fish soup), fermented fish hot pot, and grilled snake-head fish.

The province received about 800,000 tourists, including 8,500 foreigners, in the first half of the year, an increase of 50 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Its tourism revenue reached VNĐ410 billion (US$16 million) in the period, up 50 per cent year-on-year. — VNS