Waking up Tourism Potential in Hau Giang Province

Hau Giang province boasts a great potential in tourism development. The provincial tourism sector has considerably developed in recent years thanks to the governmental and local attention.

Rich potential

Hau Giang province, which is close to Can Tho City, is not only a socio-economic centre of the Mekong Red River but also a gateway to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s southern economic hub. A large number of projects are underway in the province, including Can Tho bridge and Can Tho international airport, which are expected to boost provincial tourism in the near future.

The number of tourism projects in the province has considerably increased in recent years, including Vi Thuy cajuput eco-tourism area and Tay Do convalescence resort. Moreover, investors have invested in a large number of hotel and restaurant projects. The province is famous for the Nga Bay floating market (formerly known as Phung Hiep floating market), Xa No canal, Phu Huu grapefruit, That Lat fishes in addition to nine national historic relics.

Challenges

Mr Pham Thanh Nhu, Director of the provincial Department of Tourism, Sports and Culture said despite the potential, the local tourism sector is facing a wide range of challenges including low economic growth rate, unprofessionalism, modest revenues of VND5 billion (US$279,735) in 2009, and weak infrastructure.

In addition, accommodation types are unattractive to tourists, hotels and restaurants are built far apart, tourism products are monotonous while tourism service quality is substandard and the majority of the tourism work force is unskilled and ineffective with tourism promotion. All of these challenges have hindered provincial tourism development.

The province has not yet set up travel firms to specialize in organising tours while it is essential for provincial travel companies to boost coordination with partners in big cities and provinces nationwide to foster local tourism development.

Solutions

Authorities in Hau Giang province are aware of the necessity of cooperation with tourism centres across the country in order to create new and attractive tourism products to lure more tourists in the coming time. In addition, the provincial tourism sector will encourage investment in tourism projects like Dai Han Lake tourism area and Tam Vu eco-tourism village. The provincial government will also place due attention to traffic and tourism infrastructure and human resource training to best serve tourists in combination with boosting tourism promotion programmes.

VCCI

Posted by VBN on Dec 1 2009. Filed under Tourism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry