Creating a breakthrough for tourism in the Southeast region

The Strategy and Master Plan for Vietnam Tourism Development to 2020, with a vision to 2030, have identified the Southeast as one of the seven tourism regions that play an important role in the development of tourism in the country. The tourism industry of localities in the region has correctly assessed the strengths, recognized the "bottlenecks", and has solutions to remove them in order to develop tourism in each locality as well as the whole region to be worthy of the spearhead economic sector in the region expected to become a dynamically developing region with a high economic growth rate and the largest growth driver in the country.

As one of the key tourist regions of the country, the Southeast region has a lot of potential and strengths to develop diverse and attractive tourism types and products such as forest ecotourism, marine - island ecotourism, community tourism, cultural tourism, culinary tourism , MICE tourism... Experts analyze that the Southeast region has a 350 km long coastline, many beautiful beaches such as: Vung Tau, Long Hai, Con Dao... This region also has many ecotourism resources associated with national parks, biosphere reserves, conservation areas, mangrove forests such as: Dong Nai Biosphere Reserve, Can Gio Mangrove Biosphere Reserve; National Park system: Nam Cat Tien (Dong Nai), Con Dao (Ba Ria - Vung Tau), Bu Gia Map (Binh Phuoc), Lo Go - Xa Mat (Tay Ninh)... At the same time, many localities have tourism resources associated with mountain landscapes such as: Ba Den Mountain (Tay Ninh) recognized as a complex of historical, cultural relics and scenic spots of Ba Mountain; Ba Ra Mountain (Binh Phuoc); Dinh Mountain (Ba Ria - Vung Tau); Chua Chan Mountain (Dong Nai)... Natural tourism resources associated with landscapes and ecosystems of rivers and lakes such as: Saigon River, Vam Co Dong River, Dong Nai River, Dau Tieng Lake, Tri An Lake (Dong Nai), Thac Mo Lake (Binh Phuoc)...

The Southeast region includes Ho Chi Minh City and the provinces of Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Dong Nai, Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, Tay Ninh.

Dr. Le Van Khoa, Thu Dau Mot University, commented that with its location adjacent to the Mekong Delta, the western gateway connecting to Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia through the trans-Asian road network, and the eastern port system of Saigon, Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Thi Vai, the Southeast region plays an important role in the socio-economic development of the whole country, especially tourism. This is the place where all the natural and human conditions converge to develop types of tourism to the source, eco-tourism, resort tourism, sea tourism, etc.

Not only that, as a land with more than 300 years of formation and development, the Southeast also possesses historical and cultural relics, many unique cultural features, which are the foundation for forming many cultural tourism products, tourism associated with tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

According to Director of the Department of Culture and Sports of Ho Chi Minh City Tran The Thuan, the city has 185 historical and cultural relics, including 60 special national and national relics. Many relics have become tourist destinations such as the Independence Palace, Nha Rong Wharf, Cu Chi Tunnels Historical Relic Site, Notre Dame Cathedral, Ben Thanh Market, etc.

According to the Department of Culture and Sports of Ba Ria - Vung Tau province, the province has a diverse system of historical and cultural relics and intangible cultural heritages. Just counting the festivals alone, Ba Ria - Vung Tau has 12 traditional festivals, showing the unique blend of traditional cultural colors of the three regions of the North - Central - South, of which the most typical are Phi Yen's death anniversary, Tran Hung Dao's death anniversary, Nghinh Ong festival at Thang Tam communal house, Ngu Hanh Ba Temple festival, Trung Cuu festival, Dinh Co festival, Tran Ong death anniversary - Long Son big house...

Tan Trieu grapefruit village (Dong Nai) on the days before Lunar New Year

In addition, the Southeast is also home to a rich and diverse system of craft villages, spread throughout the provinces and cities, which have been counted. Typically, Ho Chi Minh City has Tan Thong Hoi bamboo blind village, Phu Hoa Dong rice paper village, Thu Duc spring rolls, Bay Hien weaving village... Ba Ria - Vung Tau has Phuoc Hai fishing village, An Ngai rice paper village, Vung Tau shellfish handicrafts... Dong Nai has Bien Hoa pottery village, Tan Trieu grapefruit village, Ta Lai brocade weaving... Tay Ninh has Trang Bang rice paper village, shrimp salt making in Go Dau, Trang Bang... Binh Phuoc has Bu Dang brocade weaving; Bu Dop ceramics, bamboo and rattan weaving...

Based on diverse tourism resources, the provinces and cities in the Southeast region have promoted their strengths, formed and exploited many destinations and tourism products to serve tourists. Each locality has its own destinations that leave an impression, "calling correctly" the unique features, expressing the identity of the land and people.

Experience tourism on Saigon River

According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa, Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism: During the recovery and development of tourism after the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to the familiar destinations that have created the City's tourism brand, Ho Chi Minh City tourism has made efforts to develop many products and destinations to experience for tourists in the direction that each district has at least one typical tourism product with a series of new itineraries, creating an impression on tourists. These are: Go Vap - A hundred years of finding the past, Tan Binh - So many interesting things, Hoc Mon - Historical land, District 12 - So many new things, District 1 - Vibrant Saigon or the Saigon - Cho Lon Memories tour, driving a Vespa to explore the colorful District 3, creating something new for tourists even though they have been to Ho Chi Minh City many times.

Ho Chi Minh City's tourism industry coordinates with localities, units, associations, and businesses to strengthen the organization of many large-scale tourism and cultural events associated with effectively exploiting over 360 destinations, products, and tourism services formed from natural tourism resources and cultural tourism resources.

For Ba Ria - Vung Tau province, the strengths of sea and island tourism, resort tourism, cultural - spiritual tourism, and ecology with destinations such as: Ho Tram Strip Complex Tourism Area, Ho May Cable Car Tourism Area, Lan Rung Phuoc Hai Resort Tourism Area, Six Senses Con Dao Tourism Area. Typically, Melia Ho Tram Resort is constantly supplemented with experiential products and services, increasing the length of stay of tourists such as Let's Charm Fest Grand Music Festival held at Charm Resort Ho Tram, Hamptons Plaza Ho Tram Commercial - Service Area with the longest sea view bridge in Asia, commercial street, international standard services have attracted tourists to stay in Ho Tram area (Xuyen Moc district).

Ba Ria - Vung Tau tourism strongly recovers from internal strength

In the coastal city of Vung Tau, cultural - sports events and culinary festivals are held at many times of the year, contributing to the impressive results of local tourism in 2022. The total number of tourists visiting and relaxing in the province reached over 12.6 million, revenue from accommodation services increased by nearly 128% compared to 2021, the room occupancy rate of accommodation establishments, especially those located near the sea, always reached over 95%.

Dong Nai tourism, with its strengths near Ho Chi Minh City and right in the area with many industrial parks, concentrating a large number of workers, the province focuses on exploiting eco-tourism products, weekend resort tourism. In 2022, the Magic Bay Water Park destination in Bien Hoa city will be put into operation with a capacity of up to 30,000 visitors. At the same time, this destination was also set 5 records by the Vietnam Record Organization, including the largest water park in Vietnam, the largest artificial sea in Vietnam, the highest artificial waves in Vietnam, the longest magical river in Vietnam and the largest outdoor LED screen in Vietnam. All of these have created new tourism products and entertainment destinations for visitors to Dong Nai.

Dong Nai welcomes 2.2 million tourists in 2022

According to Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Dong Nai province Nguyen Thi Mong Binh: To develop diverse products, the province continues to expand and develop many destinations such as orchards growing fruit trees such as rambutan, mangosteen, durian, jackfruit, grapefruit in Bien Hoa city, Long Khanh, Xuan Loc district. With the advantage of short travel time, garden tours are flexibly designed, visitors can combine sightseeing and shopping, enjoying fruit specialties. During the fruit ripening season (from May to September), every day, the orchards welcome thousands of visitors.

In addition to the destinations that mark the tourism of each locality, tourism businesses also exploit the tour products with the nature of connection, bringing tourists to experience many localities, many cultural nuances in the same tour itinerary. Connection tours such as Ho Chi Minh City - Tay Ninh - Binh Duong with the theme "Green color of new day", "Conquering the roof of the South" or Ho Chi Minh City - Binh Duong - Binh Phuoc with the theme "Red land love of the East", Ho Chi Minh City - Dong Nai - Ba Ria - Vung Tau with the name "Green nature, harmony of the sea" ... contribute to creating the attractiveness of tourism in the Southeast.

Ho Chi Minh City Tourism strives to develop many products, destinations and experiences for tourists.

From 2020 to 2022, the provinces and cities in the Southeast region welcomed over 73.5 million tourists, including over 70.4 million domestic visitors and over 3 million international visitors, with total revenue reaching over 260 billion VND.

Converging diverse tourism resources, developing many types of tourism and services, but in many localities in the Southeast region, the strong development of the "smokeless economy" industry has not really matched the potential. The number of long-term visitors in some provinces is still low, many destinations only really attract tourists on weekends.

Dr. Le Van Khoa, Thu Dau Mot University, commented that tourism products in some localities are still monotonous, easily causing boredom for tourists. The quality of tourism products is not high, not enough to attract tourists and compete with tourism products in the region. Some entertainment services in many provinces have not been invested in and built elaborately, so the level of "attracting" tourists to stay for a long time to visit the area is very limited. The low number of days of stay leads to low total revenue from tourists.

Panoramic view of Con Dao National Park and administrative center of Con Dao district (Ba Ria - Vung Tau province)

According to Dr. Le Van Khoa, when studying tourism development in the Southeast region, many economic experts believe that the uneven distribution of tourists, especially international tourists, in the region is a waste. If localities in the region have a reasonable strategy to attract international tourists, it will bring great benefits to the economy.

For example, the destinations for return tourism are often located in remote, border, and island areas where socio-economic conditions, infrastructure, and human resources are difficult. Therefore, it is necessary to consider promoting return tourism as a lever for socio-economic development, job creation, and improving the lives of local people. The tourism industry of localities needs to strengthen cooperation, linking local tourist destinations with historical and cultural relics throughout the Southeast region, in which Ho Chi Minh City needs to play a leading role, supporting the remaining localities in building tourism products.

Concerned about ecotourism - one of the strengths of many Southeast localities, Dr. Vu Thinh Truong and Master Nguyen Hoai Nhan (Dong Nai University of Technology) said: Currently, many ecotourism activities in the Southeast region only stop at taking tourists to "see", "go to know" and visit and enjoy the natural landscape, there are not really many experiences for tourists to fully understand the value of forest landscapes, islands and indigenous cultural values ​​of local communities. Many localities in the region as well as neighboring areas have not yet formed specific tours and routes for ecotourism.

Ba Ria - Vung Tau develops diverse eco-tourism and community tourism

In addition, from the perspective of human resources, many localities in the region still lack skilled, experienced, and foreign language-proficient workers in the localities, especially in community tourism destinations, which reduces the competitiveness of tourism products and services at the destinations.

Resolution No. 24-NQ/TW of the Politburo on socio-economic development and ensuring national defense and security in the Southeast region until 2030, with a vision to 2045, has mentioned many tasks and solutions for the region. The resolution clearly states: Developing the region to become a service center of Southeast Asia in terms of finance, trade, tourism, international exchange; developing high-quality and value-added services in the fields of finance, banking, insurance; information technology - telecommunications, science - technology; tourism, logistics...

Over 73.5 million visitors to the Southeast region in the period 2020 - 2022

Representatives of the provinces and cities in the Southeast region all affirmed that Resolution No. 24-NQ/TW is opening up new opportunities for socio-economic development of the entire region, including the tourism industry - one of the strengths of the Southeast region. To effectively implement it, each locality as well as the entire region needs to have more synchronous and drastic solutions.

According to Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Doan Van Viet, localities, tourism and service businesses in the Southeast need to continue investing in product development, creating a strong impression of the region's tourism brand, forming attractive tourism programs; strongly innovating both content and promotion methods, combining online promotion on digital platforms and social networks; improving the effectiveness of technology application in tourism management and development linkage.

Emphasizing the connectivity solutions, first of all to complete the infrastructure system, creating a foundation for tourism product development, Chairman of the People's Committee of Ba Ria - Vung Tau province Nguyen Van Tho said that the province is coordinating with ministries and local branches in the region to complete the regional transport infrastructure system such as Bien Hoa - Vung Tau expressway, Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 4, upgrading Con Dao Airport, building an international passenger port and inland waterway system, Bien Hoa - Vung Tau railway, urban railway lines... Completing the transport system aims to increase connectivity of tourism activities in particular, socio-economic activities in general with localities in the region and the region.

The province develops synchronous, modern, and high-class tourism service facilities; develops types and products of resort tourism and entertainment to become typical products; develops complex, international-class tourist areas. Along with that, Ba Ria - Vung Tau develops urban areas, especially coastal tourist cities, following the green urban model, with a synchronous, modern, and superior quality infrastructure system, attracting tourists.

Cu Chi Tunnels - a place marking the heroic feats of the army and people of Cu Chi, is now a famous historical tourist destination.

Sharing the view of valuing linkage solutions, the leaders of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee proposed that the provinces and cities in the Southeast region need to build tourism products in the direction of promoting the strengths of each locality, creating a linkage of "six localities, one destination". In particular, Ho Chi Minh City is the gateway, the traffic hub connecting provinces and cities in the country and internationally on all types of means. Therefore, if linkage is well implemented, the Southeast region will have a "tourism road" with great potential, increasing revenue and attracting tourists. In addition, localities in the region need to promote linkages, cooperate in training human resources to promote the image of tourism in the whole region, and further enhance the destination brand.

Similarly, Ms. Tran Tue Hien, Chairman of Binh Phuoc Provincial People's Committee, said that in line with regional tourism products, based on local strengths, the province has conducted surveys and is developing a number of tours, typically experiential, resort, and sports tourism at Suoi Giai Lake Tourist Area connecting with sightseeing and official activities in Dong Xoai City; eco-experiential tourism; exploring and experiencing the unique cultural space of the Stieng and M'nong people at Bu Gia Map National Park. The province connects the Stieng Ethnic Cultural Conservation Area in Bom Bo, Bu Lach Grassland Tourist Area with experiential tourism products on hot air balloons and sports; focusing on tourism along the Chon Thanh (Binh Phuoc) - Gia Nghia (Dak Nong) expressway.

Binh Phuoc also develops spiritual tours, health care resorts using oriental medicine, tours to experience adventure sports activities connected with the Ba Ra Mountain Cultural and Lifesaving Complex, the Special National Monument of the Southern Vietnam Liberation Army Command Base and historical tourism products; international tours of Ho Chi Minh City - Binh Phuoc - Cambodia - Laos - Thailand.

Crowds of tourists visit the top of Ba Den Mountain (Tay Ninh)

According to the leaders of Binh Phuoc province, implementing the Socio-Economic Development Cooperation Program between Binh Phuoc and Tay Ninh provinces for the period of 2022 - 2025, in the field of tourism, the two localities have determined to coordinate in promoting many tourism products with potential and strengths such as spiritual tourism, festivals, ecology, community culture, cuisine, craft villages, agricultural products to create a chain of tourism products, creating conditions for businesses to exploit effectively. The two localities connect tourist destinations such as Tay Ninh Holy See, Ba Den Mountain Tourist Area, Southern Central Bureau Base, Ta Thiet Regional Command Relic Site, Soc Bom Bo Stieng Ethnic Cultural Conservation Area, increasing the attractiveness of tourism products of localities in the Southeast region.

With the identified orientations and policies, and the synchronous solutions proposed by sectors and localities, in the coming time, Southeast Tourism will have new breakthroughs, marking its position as one of the 7 key tourist regions of the country.

Implementing the Resolution on Southeast region development:

Source Baotintuc.vn

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