Ben Tre has many splendid landscapes for domestic and foreign tourists to discover. Countryside discovery, tours to cultural and historical relics, cottage industry villages, orchards, coconut gardens, and folk singing festivals are the most popular forms of tourism.
In the first quarter of 2012 over the long Lunar New Year holidays, many tourism companies upgraded and created services to catch the attention of tourists. In the three-month period, Ben Tre served 189,921 tourists, up 113.75 percent from the corresponding period in 2011 and equal to 27.8 percent of the 2012 plan. Particularly, international arrivals reached 79,837, up 116.36 percent year on year and equal to 26.61 percent of the yearly plan, while domestic tourists were 110,084, up 111.62 and equivalent to 28.72 percent. Especially in April, the third Ben Tre Coconut Festival 2012 attracted nearly 400,000 visitors to the province, of which 60,000 were from other localities.
To attract more tourists, Ben Tre province is deploying the tourism development master plan from now to 2015, with a vision towards 2020 and implementing many other support policies. Tourism authorities offered many incentives for investors to develop tourism.
Regarding tourism infrastructure development, three traffic infrastructure projects are underway with a total investment capital of VND92 billion. It also has 10 key ongoing tourism projects, including Forever Green - Phu Tuc Resort, Lan Vuong tourist site, and Vam Ho tourist site. It is calling investment capital for 12 projects, including Ho Chi Minh sea route (wartime weapon transporting line), Con Oc ecological and community culture site and Con Phung Resort.
The sector also actively improves the professional qualifications of its personnel to meet the growing requirements of tourists; restores monuments and builds exhibition centres; organises festivals and major events; and releases photo handbooks to make Ben Tre better known among visitors.
Mr Tran Duy Phuong, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said: To increase its contribution into the provincial GDP, the tourism industry mobilises all resources to develop countryside ecological tourism, cultural and historical tourism, and entertainment tours.
Ben Tre strives to keep tourism revenue growth of 20 percent a year and visitor growth of 12 percent. By 2015, the province expects to see 1 million visitor arrivals, of which internationals account for 43 percent. Accommodation, catering services and human resources will be further developed.
The province also continues mobilising all available resources to build traffic and other facilities for tourism development. It always puts store in the preservation and restoration of historical monuments, while building new tourist sites, hotels and transportation services.
Tu Anh
Vietnamese
