Mekong Delta region seeks to revive tourism industry

The tourism industry in general and accommodation service businesses in the Mekong Delta are struggling to maintain operations as the number of visitors to regional provinces and cities has decreased rapidly in recent months due to complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The tourism industry in general and accommodation service businesses in the Mekong Delta are struggling to maintain operations as the number of visitors to regional provinces and cities has decreased rapidly in recent months due to complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even in localities with many attractive destinations that lure a large number of tourists each year such as Dong Thap has also recorded a significant drop in tourist arrivals.

According to the local tourism sector,  Dong Thap welcomed about 600,000 visitors in the first quarter of 2021, down 27.4 percent from the same period in 2020. It raked in only 100 billion VND (over 4.38 million USD) in revenue from tourism in the period, down 28.6 percent year-on-year.

Statistics show that the Mekong Delta is home to about 2,490 accommodation establishments.

Experts believed that it is now time to re-evaluate tourism activities, make plans and prepare long and medium-term strategies to promote tourism development in the coming time.

The Mekong Delta, which was identified as one of the seven tourist regions of the country, has rich tourism resources, with over 28,000 km of canals, a diverse ecosystem, and unique cultural values. It boasts great potential to become an important resort destination in the southern region.

Experts said that attention should be paid to tapping the strengths to develop tourism forms, such as ecotourism, resort, sea and island tourism, MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) tourism, culture-history tourism, spiritual tourism, and agriculture and community-based tourism.

The region needs to focus on diversifying tourism products which can exploit its advantages such as eco-resort tourism associated with health care, agriculture and outdoor activities, they noted.

Last year, localities in the Mekong Delta region served only 28.5 million visitors, earning 21.88 trillion VND, down 38.4 percent and 50 percent year-on-year, respectively./.

VNA