Mekong Delta provinces seek capital for 13 tourism projects

      The Mekong Delta’s Tien Giang and An Giang provinces are seeking funds for 13 tourism projects.
They include Chau Doc Town Entertainment Area, Ky Lan Son Culture and History, Oc Eo History Relic and Tourism, Bung Binh Thien, My Khanh, My Hoa Hung-Con Pho Que Ecological Area, Cam Mountain Ecological Area, Tra Su Ecological Area, and infrastructure for Tourist Area No. 2 and the area of Cam Mountain.
Tien Giang province’s 77 hectare Thoi Son Islet and 80 hectare Tan Thanh Beach projects have a few local investors and the Dong Thap Muoi Ecological project covers 100 hectares.
“We have many projects but we are focusing on the Thoi Son Islet project,” Nguyen Ngoc Minh, director of the Tien Giang province Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, told the Daily at a meeting in HCMC on Friday.
The provinces’ tourism officials said the organizers not only wanted to promote their projects to investors but to let the tour operators know more about tourist sites in the two provinces.
“We (Tien Giang and An Giang) are joining hands to make a strong connection between the beginning and the last destinations of the inland section of a tourism route between countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region,” Minh said.
He said the project would help these provinces develop infrastructure and promote the area’s tourism potential and that with the region’s waterways the two provinces are aiming to develop river tours.
Under the sponsorship of the Asian Development Bank, An Giang province has built a tourist wharf in Chau Doc. A similar wharf is due in Tien Giang’s My Tho in the next few months.
“There are suitable conditions to help us develop the tourism sector,” Minh said.
Tien Giang this year has welcomed around 795,000 tourists, over half of them foreigners, up 13% compared to 2008.
An Giang attracts many visitors but most of them are not tourists as they come only to pray at Ba Chua Xu Temple in Chau Doc City.