Agri-tourism in the Mekong Delta
A workshop on improving the efficiency of agricultural tourism in the Mekong Delta was also opened on October 1 by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, the Central Coordination Office for New Villages and An Giang Province People's Committee to discuss the problem.Phan Dinh Hue, the representative of Circle Travel Services Vietnam Company, said foreign tourists often want to experience homestays and rice fields in the Mekong Delta. The number of tourists is rising annually and their spending has become one of the main revenues of Tien Giang, Vinh Long, Ben Tre provinces and Can Tho City. New and improved products will definitely attract more tourists and boost the staying time.
Domestic tourists are mostly wealthy visitors from HCM City and its eastern provinces. As cars have become much easier to acquire and new highways have been opened, they are also potential customers for Mekong Delta tourism.
However, the services and products are still very basic.
Nguyen Trong Minh from Viet Mekong Company said the tourism services in the wetlands of Dong Thap Muoi should be developed based on organic farming since this area is associated with historical reclamation activities. Minh suggested that the authorities should assists firms with bank loans, land, human resource training, and regulations on copyright protection of agricultural tourism products.
"If we don't do anything now we'll be left behind and lose many opportunities," Minh said.
Pham The Trieu, deputy director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism in An Giang, said they were one of the first provinces that started investing in agri-tourism since 2007 with support from Dutch co-operatives and Agripool network, Agriterra.
About 600 farmers were trained and nearly 100 households were given material assistance. Since then, their monthly incomes have increased by VND5m (USD216) to VND12m. Trieu has asked related agencies to help develop special services and call for investments.
"Prioritising agri-tourism is the way to boost the region's development speed. The Mekong Delta must prioritise agri-tourism as their key sector then co-operates with other provinces to design bigger tours," he said.