Refreshing Western tourism

After the establishment of the new province, localities in the West have renewed their tourism industry to suit the new development space and attract more tourists to this region.

Tourists in Phu Quoc - Photo: C.CONG

Some localities like Can Tho are expected to have a specialized resolution on tourism development in the near future.

Diverse and rich tourism products

After merging An Giang province with Kien Giang province, the new An Giang province has a diverse geographical location such as plains, mountains and islands. This is a favorable factor for the locality to develop unique tourist tours from sacred mountains to jade seas, serving domestic and foreign tourists.

An Giang has an area of ​​over 9,888km2 and is full of beautiful natural scenery "in the forest and under the sea".

Therefore, tourists coming to An Giang can enjoy spiritual tourist attractions such as Ba Chua Xu Temple on Sam Mountain, Thoai Ngoc Hau Tomb, Ba Chuc Pagoda, Ta Pa Mountain Pagoda, Hang Cong Pagoda, and Cam Mountain (also known as Thien Cam Son).

Tourist attractions associated with beautiful landscapes include Ta Pa Lake (Tuyet Tinh Coc), Phung Hoang Son (Tri Ton Commune), Soai Chek Lake, Dong Ho Lagoon, Thach Dong, and Da Dung Mountain (Ha Tien Ward). Special island tourism includes Phu Quoc, Ha Tien, Nam Du, and Hon Son (Kien Hai Special Zone).

"I find the scenery in An Giang very beautiful. From the top of Ta Pa Lake, looking across Phung Hoang Son, you will see the golden rice fields mixed with many beautiful palm trees. The people here are very gentle, happy and sociable. The dishes with grilled chicken and mashed papaya are very typical and delicious of the local people" - Ms. Nguyen Anh Quyen, a tourist from Dong Thap, happily said.

Mr. Tran Van Cuong - Chairman of Tri Ton Commune People's Committee - informed that this place has semi-mountainous terrain and many tourist attractions such as Soai So Lake, Ta Pa connected with local cuisine such as grilled chicken, pickled papaya. From the beginning of 2025 until now, the locality is expected to welcome nearly 600,000 visitors.

The locality is also focusing on tourism development, especially connecting with travel agencies, designing tours and exploiting paragliding and bull racing tourism imbued with the culture of the indigenous people to serve guests.

Meanwhile, right after merging Bac Lieu province with Ca Mau province, the Ca Mau culture, sports and tourism sector has just launched the program "Ca Mau - Destination 2025" with many large-scale events to promote the image and attract tourists.

According to Mr. Ly Vy Trieu Duong - Deputy Director of the Provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the province focuses on implementing three key groups of tasks, including: planning space and tourism products connecting typical axes such as sea and islands, mangrove forests, community tourism, spirituality and cuisine; reorganizing the market and promoting trade, promoting the brand "Ca Mau - The southernmost land of the Fatherland"; and at the same time, linking to attract investment to improve service quality.

"We build inter-regional tour routes, connecting with Can Tho, Ho Chi Minh City and other Western provinces to expand tourism space.

In particular, the upgrading of Ca Mau airport and the completion of the Can Tho - Ca Mau expressway will create a big boost in traffic, facilitating the rapid increase in the number of visitors in the coming time," Mr. Duong shared.

How to innovate tourism?

The new space makes tourism different and new to suit the new situation. Mr. Nguyen Van Phuc - Deputy Director of An Giang Tourism Joint Stock Company - said that after the merger, An Giang will have a great advantage in exploiting tourism, especially with the island tourism destination of Phu Quoc.

In Tri Ton it is still the same and there is potential to exploit tourism associated with local culture such as the culture of the Khmer ethnic group.

Therefore, Mr. Phuc believes that to attract and retain tourists in the new context, An Giang province needs to build more infrastructure and accommodation facilities in Tri Ton and Chau Doc and organize festivals, paragliding or kite-gliding.

With synchronous and attractive tourism products and convenient roads, An Giang will develop tourism strongly in the future.

Mr. Nguyen Vu Khac Huy - acting chairman of Kien Giang Tourism Association - sees An Giang as a miniature Vietnam with full natural conditions, culture, cuisine and tourism products to serve many domestic and foreign tourist market segments.

In addition, the locality must have many survey and famtrip programs to comprehensively evaluate local tourism resources.

Then businesses and travel agencies work together to come up with ideas to design attractive tours to attract tourists.

"The most important issue is to improve infrastructure and transportation to make it convenient for tourists to travel; train quality human resources, proficient in foreign languages ​​to guide and introduce to foreign visitors the culture, cuisine and unique labor beauty of local people," Mr. Huy suggested.

A tourism business in Can Tho said the city needs to create quality tourist attractions to attract visitors to Can Tho.

In addition, it is necessary to plan space for developing night tourism products. This is not only an issue in Can Tho but also in every province that has or has determined to develop night tourism.

"In fact, after dinner, there are very few places for tourists to experience, which is monotonous. Therefore, Can Tho needs to pay attention to developing culinary activities, entertainment, shopping and night cruises on the river.

At the same time, in the coming period, it is also necessary to maintain a show about the culture, history, and people of Can Tho so that visitors to Can Tho have a grand show that they must come to experience this show.

Mr. Nguyen Van Bay, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Can Tho, said that the Can Tho tourism industry determined that it is necessary to further promote sustainable tourism development activities, while promoting tourism stimulus activities.

The Department has coordinated with the City Tourism Association and tourism businesses to develop and organize the announcement of a tourism stimulus program.

"The program has mobilized the participation of more than 150 product packages, services, and tourism stimulus tours from businesses, accommodation establishments, restaurants, tourist destinations, entertainment services...", Mr. Bay said.

Can Tho will have a resolution on tourism development.

At the meeting with leaders of Can Tho City and Hau Giang and Soc Trang provinces over the past periods, Secretary of the Can Tho City Party Committee Do Thanh Binh said that the Standing Committee of the City Party Committee will have a specialized resolution on tourism.

According to Mr. Binh, in the first six months of 2025, tourists staying in Can Tho for a short time and spending little money, not as much as many other provinces in the country. 6 million visitors, each person only spends 1 million VND/day, while the national average is 65 USD/person (about 1.6 million), in some places 200 USD/person.

Mr. Binh said that the city's tourism industry has potential and advantages, but tourism products are not attractive and it is difficult to retain visitors.

Mr. Binh informed that one of the solutions for tourism development is to have international flights and at a recent meeting with Japanese investors, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man called for opening a flight route connecting Can Tho City with Japan.

Phu Quoc - high quality eco-tourism

Mr. Bui Quoc Thai - Director of An Giang Department of Tourism - said that in order to develop sustainable tourism, the department is consulting the provincial People's Committee to seek opinions from ministries and branches on the project to build Phu Quoc into a service center, high-quality eco-tourism, sea and island tourism of national and international stature.

"We are strengthening the promotion of tourist destinations and encouraging local tourism businesses to design attractive tours at reasonable prices to attract customers," said Mr. Thai.

CHI QUOC - CHI CONG - THANH HUYEN

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/lam-moi-du-lich-mien-tay-20250822085520979.htm