Hau Giang Tapping Tourism Potential

 

Hau Giang has many natural tourist potentials with distinguished characteristics to develop tourism products. In particular, there are a vast river system and many rural products such as Cau Duc pineapple, Phu Huu pomelo, and Long Tri tangerine. This is the land of cultural interference of 3 ethnic minorities including the Kinh, Khmer, and people originated from China. Therefore, its spiritual and religious life is rich. Hau Giang is also known as a land rich in revolutionary tradition with 9 revolutionary historical national and cultural sites including Hau Giang Provincial Party Committee Relic, the Southern Rise relic, Tam Vu relic, and Uncle Ho temple. These relics contribute to the diversity of Hau Giang and make it a new tourist attraction.

 

Hau Giang also attracts visitors with its luxuriant fruit orchards and poetic yet powerful Xa No Canal which provides alluvial for thousands of paddy fields and is as well an important water transport route of Hau Giang province and Can Tho City. Also Hau Giang has Vi Thuy cajuput forest ecological park and Lung Ngoc Hoang Nature Reserve which attract the attention of visitors who love nature. One more advantage for Hau Giang’s tourism development is the province's transportation system in particular and the connection with other provinces, which has developed quite well, in general. Hau Giang is no longer the final destination in the Hau River area’s western subregion when Highway 1A is upgraded and the roads connecting Vi Thanh with Can Tho, Bon Tong with Mot Ngan complete. Cai Tu bridge and Doan Ket bridge will connect Go Quao district with Giong Rieng of Kien Giang province.

 

Not only me but most experts agree that many places in the province of Hau Giang still maintain their unspoiled natural landscapes, which is an advantage not many provinces in the Mekong Delta region have. This province is suitable for many types of tourism foreign tourists are interested in such as ecotourism and fruit orchards. Two pioneering areas are Cau Duc pineapple in Hoa Tien (Vi Thanh city) and Long Tri tangerine (Long My District). Ecotourism is not a new tourism form yet attractive to many tourists, specifically foreign tourists. Therefore we are very confident that Hau Giang will have impressive tourism products of this tourism type for visitors.

 

Thanks to the exploitation of available potentials and advantages, after 10 years of separation, in parallel with the great achievements in socio-economic development, Hau Giang tourism has prospered, reflected by the growing number of tourists over the years and contributing to the local economic growth. Specifically, at the time of the separation, the number of visitors to the province was 90,563 visits and revenue VND1.7 billion. However, in 2014, this figure was raised to 293,000, which brought the revenue of around VND44 billion. This success is firstly thanks to the leadership and concern of the provincial Party Committee, People's Council and People's Committee, the support from the Department of Tourism, the synchronous collaboration among local departments as well as the proactive management of the sector’s leaders, which has helped the tourism industry of Hau Giang gradually improve and become more attractive for tourists.

 

Objectively speaking, Hau Giang’s tourism sector has a low base compared to that of other provinces in the region, which resulted in numerous restrictions in the infrastructure for tourism. Typical tourism products to attract tourists have not been formed. For this reason, the number of visitors to Hau Giang, which has increased recently, is not commensurate with the potential for tourism of the province. How to overcome these difficulties and to develop Hau Giang’s tourism in commensurate with its potential concerns is a pressing concern for not only myself but also all officers, servants and employees in the tourism industry.

 

To solve the current difficulties, primarily, the tourism sector needs to focus on taking advantage of and exploiting existing potentials to create the unique tourism products to attract visitors. Each construction and destination in Hau Giang has to make their own signature. Hau Giang has Xa No embankment with the 20-kilometer project which is just like a beautiful picture highlighting the beauty of Hau Giang. To continue to create more accents, Hau Giang is investing in many tourism projects, in which significantly being the Vietnam – Australia ecotourism park expected to go into operation in 2015. The province is calling for investment of 10 projects, in which Lung Ngoc Hoang ecotourism park and Nga Bay Floating Market being the highlight. Lung Ngoc Hoang ecological park is the place of special natural resources suitable for natural tourism development, while the project reserving and developing Nga Bay Floating Market brings a unique kind of the way of living in river water, which can only be found in the Southern region.

 

Resolution 09 proposes that by 2020, tourism will have become one of the economic sectors making the most important contribution to the development of Hau Giang which can create jobs and increase income for people. On that basis, the provincial People’s Committee issued Planning 100/KH-UBND dated 26^th November 2014 to implement the Resolution, thus making a favourable step for tourism development of the province. After over one year of implementation, Hau Giang’s tourism development has achieved remarkable results, initially effectively exploited the existing potentials and advantages of Hau Giang’s tourism, made tourism an important sector of the provincial economy, contributed to GDP growth and improved people's income, thus making a marked improvement in the perception of people about tourism development investment. Infrastructure has been invested in and step by step meets immediate and long-term demand. The province also mobilizes all resources in the construction of tourism products, improves service quality, and organizes tourism business effectively. The synergy of the province has been wel promoted to gradually improve the quality of the destinations. Tourism services and products have been diversified; the quality of human resources serving the tourism sector has been improved; tourism promotion activities have been effectively organized. More importantly, each district, town, city and tourism business has chosen its own advantage and have effective exploiting plan.