The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) under Ministry of Culture, Sport & Tourism in coordination with An Giang People’s Committee and functional agencies jointly organized conference “Enhancing efficiency of agricuture-based tourism in Mekong Delta”.
The VNAT said Mekong is one of the country’s major tourism areas, has many potentials of diversified natural resource and the community-based tourism culture, creating unique tourism products. Of these, eco-tourism has become attractive tourism product to domestic and international visitors.
Recent years, the region has many positive changes. In 2017, Mekong provinces received over 20 million visitors, up around 9 percent per year. The number of tourist arrivals has increased but the number of long-stay tourists has still gained slowly, only 2 million out of 20 million visitors. Tourists spending in the province is only US$ 22 per day. The cause is because tourism products have not been developed professionally to attract visitors.
The department said agri-tourism is current being developed in many countries cross over the world, also contributing to develop socio-economic at rural areas therefore, Mekong authorities should focus on agri-tourism development, helping increase income for local farmers.
Deputy Director of VNAT Ngo Hoai Chung mentioned the linking to set up value chain between agriculture and tourism is very important, contributing to maintaining local traditional products. Local authorities should invest in this product and plan to take it to be key tourism product in the region in an effort to increase the length of tourists’ stays in the region.
