Tien Giang: Poised for Strong Tourism Growth

Tien Giang province will continue to develop tourism, which has a high potential for development and is important to the socio-economic development strategy, with a focus on improving comprehensive tourism quality to meet the increasing requirements of domestic and foreign tourists in the coming time.

Cai Be Floating Market

Creating disruptive steps

Tien Giang is located at the gateway of the Mekong Delta region, featured with its three different ecological properties (alluvial freshwater, mangrove and Dong Thap Muoi alum flooded ecosystem) that form famous orchards. The province is home to 22 national historical and cultural relics, including one special national relic, and 162 provincial historical and cultural monuments.

To unlock local advantages and realize Resolution 08-NQ/TW dated January 16, 2017 of the Politburo, the Provincial People's Committee advised the Provincial Party Committee to issue Resolution 11-NQ/TU dated April 5, 2017 on Tien Giang tourism development to 2020, with an eye to 2030, and launched Plan 118/KH-UBND dated May 5, 2017 on implementation of Resolution 11-NQ/TU dated April 5, 2017.

Tien Giang aims to create comprehensive and disruptive tourism development in terms of scope, scale, service quality and sustainability, thus making tourism a leading economic sector by 2030 that will have high growth, quality and professionalism in addition to a system of synchronous and modern technical and material infrastructures and high-quality, diversified, branded and competitive tourism products to more strongly drive socioeconomic development.

Specifically, by 2030, the province will welcome over 4.74 million visitors, an average increase of 8.57%, including 1.988 million international visitors. Total tourism revenue will reach VND24 trillion (over US$1 billion). The province will have 670 hotels and equivalent accommodation facilities, with 18,700 rooms. At least 359,000 people are involved in the tourism sector, including 14,000 full-time tourism workers.

Rach Gam - Xoai Mut Monument Site

In the coming time, Tien Giang will focus on implementing Resolution 11 of the Provincial Party Committee, with key solutions as follows:

Raise awareness of tourism development: Raising awareness of people, businesses and communities in building and promoting cultural and historical traditions, assisting sustainable tourism development; and constantly improving the prestige, brand and attraction of Tien Giang tourism.

Develop tourism development support and investment policies: Continue to develop appropriate and breakthrough mechanisms and policies to develop tourism into a spearhead economy, mobilize maximum social resources for tourism development investment by sectoral restructuring and support for clearing difficulties.

Restructure the tourism industry towards professionalism, modernity and sustainability: Review and adjust tourism development planning by concentrating resources, building key areas and creating motivations for tourism development.

Invest in material and technical infrastructure development: Attract more investment resources for physical and technical infrastructure development; and encourage investors to carry out eco-tourism, entertainment and tourism service projects and invest in traditional cultural values, festivals, arts and cottage industries.

Enhance tourism promotion: Reform methods and contents, apply modern technologies to ensure consistent and professional implementation and effective improvement of domestic and foreign tourism promotion; and build a tourism brand in the province imbued with cultural identities of Tien Giang River and water.

Train and develop human resources: Focus on improving vocational skills, foreign languages and professional ethics for the tourism workforce.

Link tourism development: Strengthen connectivity to develop the tourism market; cooperate in making tours, connecting routes, developing typical products, imbued with local traditional culture, and diversifying joint products with neighboring provinces such as Ben Tre, Vinh Long and Can Tho.

Strengthen administration capacity and performance: Reinforce consistent, professional and effective tourism administration; foster the role of the State Steering Committee on Tourism, Tien Giang Tourism Association and other professional associations in support of tourism development.

Ready for post-pandemic stimulus

Recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism sector of Tien Giang province promptly advised the Provincial People's Committee to launch support policies to engage organizations and individuals in tourism by supporting 193 tour guides and thousands of freelance workers in difficulty; assisting 15 enterprises that completed procedures for reducing deposits for travel services; slashing appraisal fees for tourist guide cards for 103 tour guides; supporting 1,884 tourism workers fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

In addition, executing the Resolution 128/NQ-CP of the Government dated October 11, 2021 on regulations on “Safe and flexible adaptation, effective control of the COVID-19 epidemic”, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism advised the Provincial People's Committee to issue Plan 378/KH-UBND dated December 15, 2021 on Tien Giang tourism restoration, with particular focus on demand stimulus to draw domestic tourists. The department also continued to advise the Provincial People's Committee to introduce Plan 121/PA-UBND dated April 14, 2022 on tourism reopening under new normalcy as guided by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Dong Tam Snake Farm

Key solutions are as follows:

Reoperate tourist attractions, accommodation and travel services: Guide and support tourism service providers to prepare facilities and human resources and develop plans to ensure epidemic prevention and control.

Develop tourism products: Improve the quality of destinations, foster tourism; accelerate the progress of tourism development investment projects; remove difficulties and increase support to woo strategic investors into key projects.

Boost tourism communication, advertising and promotion: Focus on information technology application; building and developing Tien Giang tourism brands.

Support tourism recovery acceleration: Timely deploy support policies for tourism businesses and households in the new context.

Train and foster human resources: Organize training courses to improve skills and competences for tourism human resources to meet new requirements.

As a result, the province's tourism has shown positive signs of recovery, evidenced by the increase of domestic and international tourist arrivals, which rose 43.5% year on year to 377,746-strong in the first seven months of 2022, including 12,958 international visitors, up 100%. Tourism revenue was VND184.66 billion, up 28.6% year on year.

These are positive signals for tourism recovery and development and will contribute to local socio-economic development in the coming time.

Chu Van An (Vietnam Business Forum)