Bac Lieu Tourism: Strong Transformation

Being a coastal delta province, in addition to advantages for development of agriculture, renewable energy and marine economy, Bac Lieu also has vast potential for tourism development with various types and specific products, such as cultural tourism, ecological tourism and experience travelling.

Tourism potential

Bac Lieu province has long been renowned for don ca tai tu, a genre of folk music - considered food of the mind for southern people in general and Bac Lieu people in particular. Renowned late composer Cao Van Lau composed his popular Da Co Hoai Lang (Night drumbeats causes longing for absent husband), a masterpiece considered an important crystallization of don ca tai tu development history.

Bac Lieu is famous for the historical and cultural values associated with the anecdote about Bac Lieu Dude. The legend about Bac Lieu Dude and the Bac Lieu Dude Art and Architecture Monument are strongly attractive to tourists visiting Bac Lieu province.

Tourism potential also comes from spiritual culture, the meeting of spiritual beauty of traditional folk beliefs. A lot of popular festivals are held in the province every year, for example Nam Hai Quan Am Festival, Da Co Hoai Lang Festival and Nghinh Ong Festival.

Regarding culinary culture, the long-term co-existence of Vietnamese, Chinese and Khmer ethnic groups and the blend of culture leaves an unforgettable impression on the hearts of tourists and friends from near and far once they come to Bac Lieu. The unique feature in culinary culture not only shows intimacy and love, but also enriches and diversifies the culinary culture of Bac Lieu. This place is famous for rural xeo cake (crispy, stuffed rice pancake), noodle soup, spicy beef noodle soup and cassava cake.

In addition, Bac Lieu is focusing on tapping tourism potential by building modern and environmentally friendly projects such as seaside wind power farms. In the coming time, Bac Lieu will work with Viet Uc Group to establish sightseeing experience tours to the High-tech Agricultural Park where shrimp is being reared; and cooperate with Bac Lieu Salt Company to launch experience tours to salt fields.

Towards regional tourist hub

To promote the above-mentioned potential and strengths, over the past time, Bac Lieu province has made efforts to develop key tourism products peculiar to other Mekong Delta provinces and cities; improved service quality in tourist areas and destinations; upgraded, restored and conserved ranked historical, revolutionary and cultural relics, cultural works and ancient architectural works to build them into tourist products to attract tourists.

The province has focused investment resources on technical infrastructure for tourism development, especially transportation infrastructure and tourism service facilities. The construction, completion and operation of road, waterway and public transport systems has practically served tourism development in both short and long terms, especially the upgrade of bridges and roads to some tourist areas and places of interest such as: Bac Lieu Bird Park, Uncle Ho Temple, Party Monument, Noc Lang Relic, Hung Thien Pagoda, Nha Mat tourist site, river bank embankment in Bac Lieu City, and especially Cao Van Lau traffic route connecting the heart of Bac Lieu City with Nha Mat tourist site and dike along the Bac Lieu coastal road system.

At the same time, the province has mobilized, directed and facilitated all economic sectors and people to invest in building trade centers, supermarkets and convenience stores to meet shopping demands of visitors; upgrade hotels for tourists, including many newly built facilities such as New Palace Hotel, Tran Vinh Hotel, Thanh Dat Hotel, Diamond Hotel, and Ho Nam Resort. In particular, Vingroup is carrying out Vincom Shophouse Bac Lieu project - a complex of trade centers, hotels and townhouses.

The province has sped up tourism promotion, cooperation and development. Every year, Bac Lieu organizes tourism promotion delegations with other localities in the country, and signs tourism development cooperation agreements with localities with developed tourism sectors to introduce local potential and advantages to call investment funds for tourism development. The province successfully hosted many major international, national and regional cultural, sports and tourism events and received high appreciation from tourists, friends and visitors from near and far, including international tourists.

In addition, to improve tourism worker quality, every year, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism organizes professional tourism training courses for people working for tourism service companies and tourist transport companies; and opens training courses to raise the competence of tourism officials. It also established the Tourism Volunteers club to effectively take part in provincial, regional and international cultural, sports and tourism events.

Especially, 2019 was considered the year of “Bac Lieu tourism action” with the successful organization of many national and regional events such as Bac Lieu Cultural and Tourism Week 2019, Mekong Delta - HCM City Conference on Integrated Tourism Development Program, together with various tourism activities to enhance the image of Bac Lieu tourism to domestic and foreign friends and create ripple effects on tourism development in Bac Lieu province.

With its workable solutions, Bac Lieu tourism has made a strong “transformation”, with tourist arrivals rising by 22% and tourism revenue rising by 20%. Currently, Bac Lieu province is aiming to become a Mekong Delta tourist center. According to Resolution 11-NQ/TU of the Standing Board of the Provincial Party Committee (15th term), Bac Lieu province will further promote tourism development to 2025 and to 2030, aiming to attract 7 million visitors and generate tourism revenue of VND10 trillion in 2025 and 12 million tourist arrivals, and tourism revenue of VND28 trillion in 2030.

Source: Vietnam Business Forum