Delta's tourism industry to heat up

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has approved a plan to develop tourism as a key economic sector in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta.
The Cai Rang floating market in Can Tho City. The market and My Khanh tourism area are drawing increasing numbers of tourists.
The plan, which extends to 2020, will aid in the country’s economic transformation and help reduce hunger and poverty, according to the ministry.
The main goals are to diversify tourism products and fully exploit the country’s tourism potential.
The plan calls for linkage among provinces and cities in the region and additional investment in tourism projects of international standards.
Under the plan, the Mekong Delta region would focus on the overseas Vietnamese community and Southeast Asian tourism market, especially Cambodia, while maintaining current markets in Northeast Asia, Western Europe and North America.
Domestically, the area aims to attract more tourists as well, particularly from HCM City and Ha Noi, and the southeastern region.
The Delta region hopes to welcome 2.7 million foreign visitors and 5.3 million domestic tourists by 2015, according to the plan.
By 2020, the region expects to receive 3.9 million foreign tourists and 6.5 million local visitors. By 2015, there would be 37,150 hotel rooms and a total of 50,000 by 2020.
The aim is to employ 154,700 people in the Mekong Delta tourism sector by 2015 and 236,600 by 2020.
Officials estimate that revenue in the region would reach US$723.1 million, with a GDP of $491.6 million by 2015, and revenue of $1.35 billion, with a GDP of $877.1 million by 2020.
The Mekong Delta region would focus on developing rural tourism (orchard and river tours combined with home-stays); cultural tourism (exploration of ethnic cultures), eco-tourism (tours of ecological systems in the area), and high-quality spa therapy tourism (including Kien Giang Province’s Phu Quoc Island and Ha Tien Town).
Tourism growth
In recent years, the Mekong Delta has attained significant achievements in tourism, according to Huynh Vinh Ai, deputy minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
For example, in 2009 the number of foreign visitors to the region reached 1.2 million, three times higher than in 2000, while local tourists were 8 million compared to 3.4 million in 2000, resulting in revenue of VND2 trillion for the tourism industry.
Tourism in the Mekong Delta region has also created stable jobs and raised the income of local residents, according to Ai.
Viet Nam attracts millions of tourists each year, with its more than 3,000 kilometres of coast, thousands of islands and 125 beaches.
The Mekong Delta has 700 kilometres of coast and a territorial seawater area of 360,000 square kilometres.
The country’s coastal areas have lured nearly 70 per cent of foreign visitors and more than 50 per cent of local tourists, accounting for nearly 70 per cent of the gross income of the country’s tourism industry.
Call for investment
According to the recently approved plan, the Mekong Delta region would concentrate investment in hotels, high-quality resorts and recreational sites of an international standard.
It would also aim to preserve and enhance the environment, develop festivals to diversify tourism products, train more tourism staff, and conduct research on applying technology in the tourism industry.
The Mekong Delta can be reached by air, land, river or sea. The region has airports in Can Tho City, Phu Quoc Island, Rach Gia Town and Ca Mau Province.
Under the ministry’s plan, two international airports will be built.
Located in southwest Viet Nam, the Mekong Delta region, with an area of nearly 40,000 square kilometres and a population of 18 million, includes 12 provinces and one major city, Can Tho. The region extends from Long An Province in the north to Ca Mau Province in the south..