Dơi (Bat) Pagoda, a popular tourist site in Sóc Trăng city in the Mekong Delta. VNS File Photo.

HCM CITY — The Mekong Delta province of Sóc Trăng’s investments in tourism infrastructure are paying off with a rising number of local and foreign travellers coming to the province.

Last year it received more than two million visitors and earned revenues of nearly VNĐ758 billion (nearly US$33 million), 90 per cent pup from as recently as 2015

Trần Minh Lý, director of its Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the development of the tourism industry has also contributed to economic development by creating more jobs and helping restructure the economy.

Under a programme to develop the tourism industry 2025, Sóc Trăng will create more tourist attractions such as the Quan Âm – Linh Ứng and Bốn Mặt (Four-sided) pagodas, Ngã Năm Floating Market and the Mỹ Phước indigo forest.

Speaking at a tourism meeting on Wednesday (May 8), Lý said Sóc Trăng also plans to develop community tourism, create new inter-provincial tourist attractions and solicit investment in cruise and homestay tourism and other accommodation.

According to reports tabled at the meeting, Sóc Trăng has great potential in tourism, especially spiritual and religious, ecological and beach-sea tourism.

However, infrastructure could be improved, the hospitality industry fails to fully visitors’ needs and tourist guides’ skills could be better, Lý said.

But the industry requires better advertisement, and the province should take more measures to make itself more attractive to, he added. —VNS.