Blessed with abundant potential and advantages, the ecological and marine tourism of Ben Tre province has gradually become an important drive of tourism economic development. Mr Tran Duy Phuong, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Ben Tre province, said, “Seizing this advantage, Ben Tre is stepping up tourism potential exploration, especially ecological and marine tourism, to boost its role in local socioeconomic development". Minh Tuan and Kim Bang report.
By tapping existing potential and advantages, the tourism sector of Ben Tre province has achieved positive results. Could you demonstrate this success with specific data?
In 2013 and early 2014, despite existing economic difficulty, the Ben Tre tourism industry managed to organise events to attract tourists, including tourism stimulus programme, Ben Tre Culture Week 2013, and Cho Lach Fruit Fair 2014. The sector also intensified tourism promotion and advertisement, attended tourism fairs and tourism seminars, participated in the first Don Ca Tai Tu Festival - Bac Lieu 2014, the third Dong Nai Foods and Drinks Festival 2013, Southern Cake Festival in Can Tho City and Mekong Delta Tourism Promotion Seminar, hosted meetings with four tourism centres of Ben Tre, Tien Giang, Vinh Long and Tra Vinh provinces and with local tourism firms to seek tourism development solutions, and signed tourism cooperation development with Ho Chi Minh City.
With such endeavours, in 2013 and in the first six months of 2014, the tourism sector of Ben Tre province obtained optimistic achievements. In 2013, tourism revenue grossed VND459 billion, equal to 102 percent of the full-year plan and tourist arrivals reached 800,400, equal to 105 percent of the yearly plan. In the first six months of 2014, tourism revenue totalled VND282 billion, equal to 51 percent of the annual plan and tourist arrivals amounted 452,000, reaching 53 percent of the plan set for 2014. All forms of tourism saw increasing tourist arrivals, particularly ecological and marine tourism.
In the first six months of 2014, Ben Tre also spent VND165 billion on building infrastructure facilities to serve tourism business. Typical projects included a project to restore and conserve Ho Chi Minh Trail at sea in Ben Tre province, a project to develop An Khanh tourist stopover and Phu An Khanh tourist stopover, Vam Ho Sanctuary, and Coconut Hotel. The province has so far attracted 26 tourism development investment projects, of which 23 projects are in valid with a total registered capital of VND4,100 billion. Investors of these projects have thus far disbursed VND864 billion.
Ben Tre is endowed with abundant potential for ecological and marine tourism development. So, what are its points of potential and advantages?
With a 65-km coastline, the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre is blessed with enormous potential for diversifying tourism forms, specially river and garden-based tourism and marine tourism. Based on geological and natural conditions, the tourism industry has zoned out specific tourism areas. The river and garden-based tourism will be developed in communes along the Tien River and on islets in Chau Thanh district; southern provinces of Ben Tre City like My Thanh An, Phu Nhuan and Nhon Thanh; communes in Cho Lach district like Vinh Thanh (Cai Mon), Son Dinh, Vinh Binh and Phu Phung. The marine tourism will be developed in Thua Duc and Thoi Thuan communes in Binh Dai district, Con Ho and Con Nhan communes in Ba Tri district; and Thanh Phong and Thanh Hai communes in Thanh Phu district.
Currently, river and garden-based tourist sites are developing very well. Regarding marine tourism development, the province is currently implementing two projects, namely Thua Duc marine tourism and Thanh Hai marine tourism.
How has Ben Tre made its tourism different and unique from others, to attract more and more tourists?
In general, Mekong Delta provinces have similar soil conditions and similar tourism potential. However, each locality has its own distinctive characteristics. To avoid providing similar tourism products, these localities need to study their own characteristics to develop unique tourism products.
Ben Tre province focuses on building unique tourism products based on local conditions like coconuts, bonsais and orchards and historical values like ‘Ben Tre Uprising’ and ‘Ben Tre celebrities and intangible cultural relics’. To concretise the above directions, in the Ben Tre tourism development scheme for 2011 - 2015 period, the province has built two distinctive tourist attractions, namely Forever Green Resort project and a project to restore and preserve Ho Chi Minh Trail at sea in Ben Tre province in association with Dinh Thuy guerrilla village (Mo Cay Nam district). Once finished, these two projects will attract more tourists to the province.
Would you mind telling us about the solutions Ben Tre province will take to unlock tourism potential, especially ecological tourism and marine tourism, to build an important economic sector with an increasing role in local development?
To turn tourism into a leading key economic sector, the province has focused on completing infrastructure projects with direct impacts on the development of local tourism sites, and creating motivations to attract and deploy tourism infrastructure projects. Ben Tre has also capitalised on central budgets as well as local funds to build tourism infrastructure projects. The province has appealed domestic and foreign investors to build modern tourist sites, resorts, and recreational centres.
Besides, the tourism sector will coordinate with relevant agencies to organise tourism development events and campaigns to persuade visitors to spend longer time in the province. It has strengthened tourism cooperation with other localities like Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho, Tien Giang, Vinh Long and Tra Vinh to carry out regional tourism development. In addition, the sector also has policies to train tourism personnel to enhance the professionalism and dynamism of tourist workers.
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