Refreshing Tourism Products

10:48:45 AM | 11/6/2024

Overcoming hardships caused by the global economic downturn, Bac Lieu tourism industry is still advancing on a steady growth path. In an interview granted to Vietnam Business Forum, Ms. Tran Thi Lan Phuong, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Bac Lieu province, said that the above outcomes partly come from the effort to refresh tourism products to further position Bac Lieu tourism brand to attract more tourists.

Accordingly, Bac Lieu province has urgently consolidated and improved the quality and promoted the effectiveness of tourism products recognized by the Mekong Tourism Association as typical tourist destinations to connect tours/tour routes with the Mekong Delta and the whole country as well as tourism products that are the indigenous strengths of Bac Lieu province. The Mekong Delta currently has 62 typical tourist destinations, including 12 in Bac Lieu province. In particular, the province has continued to promote the value of amateur folk music arts (Don Ca Tai Tu) associated with the Southern Don Ca Tai Tu Art and Musician Cao Van Lau Memorial Site, a 4-star OCOP tourism product. The province has also focused on developing experiential activities and nighttime activities for tourists.

Bac Lieu province has also paid attention to promoting the values of Cong Tu Bac Lieu (Bac Lieu Prince) legends associated with the architectural and artistic relic of Bac Lieu Prince Mansion, facilitating and urging investors to soon operate Bac Lieu Prince Cultural Area as a favorite sightseeing and experience destination for tourists. The province has fostered the function of Hung Vuong Square and surrounding art and cultural works, especially building unique art programs at the Art Exhibition Center and Cao Van Lau Theater (Three-leaf conical hat theater) to become an attractive night destination for tourists.

In addition, the province has encouraged and facilitated businesses and investors of coastal wind power projects to combine the exploitation of mangrove ecosystems and coastal protection forests to form and develop locally distinctive eco-tourism products. Currently, some projects have been effectively implemented and are highly appreciated by tourists and travel businesses such as Bac Lieu Wind Farm and Hoa Binh 1 Wind Farm.

Besides, the province has boosted cooperation and tourism product connections with Ho Chi Minh City and with Mekong Delta provinces and cities. Bac Lieu has developed two tourist routes with Ho Chi Minh City: Alluvial Road (Ho Chi Minh City - Long An - Tien Giang - Vinh Long - Can Tho - Hau Giang - Soc Trang - Bac Lieu - Ca Mau) and natural romantic route (Ho Chi Minh City - Tien Giang - Ben Tre - Tra Vinh - Soc Trang - Bac Lieu - Ca Mau).

On the other hand, the province organized two major events: The 2nd Bac Lieu Culture - Tourism Week 2022 in conjunction with the Da Co Hoai Lang Festival to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Bac Lieu province (1997 - 2022) and the Bac Lieu Province Agricultural, Rural and OCOP Product Tourism Festival 2023. These events attracted a large number of domestic and foreign tourists to experience and explore tourism.

Bac Lieu's tourism industry has not made many breakthroughs in recent years. As a management agency, what do you see as the main reasons for that reality?

Despite having a lot of potential strengths and having achieved important results, Bac Lieu tourism still faces numerous difficulties and limitations. The number of visitors to Bac Lieu is quite large but the length of their stay is not high as the province lacks technical and service facilities, entertainment activities are not attractive to tourists, and souvenirs and consumer products for tourists remain monotonous and uncompetitive.

The absence of a policy to strongly attract and encourage social resources and investors to invest in tourism development is one of the main reasons for this reality. Most local travel, and tourism service and tourism-related companies are small and medium in size and lack resources for bold tourism development investment. Central capital and private investment for tourism development infrastructure are still limited. Tourism investment attraction is not really effective. Some projects lack capital, resulting in slower progress than planned. Some projects change investors, which also affects project progress.

To tap tourism potential and turn tourism into a driving force for socioeconomic development, what solutions will Bac Lieu province continue to apply?

To tap tourism potential and turn tourism into a driving force for socioeconomic development, in my opinion, the province needs to attract more social investment resources to develop tourism infrastructure and develop transport infrastructure, especially in key areas and driving forces for tourism development. Bac Lieu needs to encourage investors to implement tourism service projects, especially strategic investors to focus on forming complex tourism service areas and large-scale, high-quality projects to enhance the beauty of Bac Lieu City, thereby creating a new look for the province and making important contributions to tourism, service, economic, cultural and social development of Bac Lieu province. The province will soon ask the Prime Minister to approve the project of developing Nha Mat - Bac Lieu area into a national tourist area.

At the same time, the province needs to focus on developing unique, distinctive tourism products to boost its tourism brand and competitiveness; strengthen domestic and external tourism promotion, with necessary focus on connecting with key areas, especially connecting authorities, tourism service businesses, and tourist areas and destinations. Bac Lieu should foster the application of information technology to develop smart tourism, with emphasis on building and adopting smart tourism management in the Bac Lieu Smart Urban Development Project for the 2021 - 2025 period and with an eye to 2030. The locality will improve the quality of public tourism employees at all levels and enhance human resources of tourism businesses, in both business administration and tourism industry; diversify tourism training forms to improve the quality of human resources for tourism development.

In the first nine months of 2024, total tourism revenue in Bac Lieu province reached VND3,400 billion, up 9.1% year on year. Tourist arrivals exceeded 4.1 million, up 14.2% year on year.

The tourism industry has proven its role as one of the five pillars of socioeconomic development of the province. Tourism products have been increasingly diversified, with many making their own distinctive brands, especially offshore wind farms and religious tourism destinations. Tourism development cooperation between Ho Chi Minh City and Mekong Delta provinces and cities has initially produced good outcomes.

One of Bac Lieu province’s outstanding tourism successes is that Nha Mat - Bac Lieu Area is included on the list of potential locations for being added into national tourist areas according to the Tourism System Planning in the 2021 - 2030 period, with a vision to 2045, recently approved by the Prime Minister.

Thank you so much!

By Quoc Hung, Vietnam Business Forum