National park pilots experimental tourism

Tram Chim National Park in Tam Nong district, the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap, is piloting experimental tourism in the flooding season, which involves tourists in fishing activities, harvesting wild rice, visiting breeding grounds of birds and sailing to enjoy natural landscapes.
Director of the park Nguyen Van Hung said that the pilot aims to diversify tourism activities and heads towards a sustainable tourism with greater community participation.
Through such activities, tourists can gain an insight into the daily life of fishermen, thus raising the preservation awareness of tourists as well as the native community.
Experimental tourism is hoped to consolidate the park’s title as a wetland of international importance (Ramsar site), helping attract more support from global organisations for its activities.
Dong Thap province has approved a budget of over 14 billion VND (666,700 USD) for eco-tourism and environmental services in the park from 2013 to 2020.
At present, Tram Chim is offering tours around block A1 by water. It boats 3,000ha of indigo forest and is home to a primeval forest and a nearly 1,000ha of wild rice.
Visiting the park, tourists may well be overwhelmed by a bird sanctuary covering tens of hectares. Nesting in vast forests all year round are various water birds like l ittle cormorants, lesser whistling ducks, herons and wild ducks, as well as tens of thousands of white storks.
Tram Chim is most beautiful in the flooding season when water from the Mekong River inundates the whole area, turning it into an oasis among an immense body of water dotted with the yellow flowers of Sesbania Sesban, purple water lilies, pink lotuses and the vivid green of the indigo forest.