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However, the Mekong Delta tour-
ism industry has still not fully exploited
its potential. The figures increase year
on year, but we have not had a true
breakthrough. The duration of tourists’
stays in the region is still too short.
What is hindering the development?
Some say it is that your tourism
products are not diverse enough.
The Mekong Delta region consists
of 13 cities and provinces; half of them
are by the sea, and the remainder
has plentiful rivers, canals, lakes and
ponds. Being a large agricultural area,
the provinces have many similarities.
That’s why the products are the same.
For example Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Vinh
Long and Can Tho provinces all provide
boat tours along the river to fruit tree
gardens, to crafts villages and to taste
southern cuisines and enjoy
don ca tai
tu
(southern folk opera). Some tourist
areas offer the same product of seeing
the typical living conditions of southern
farmers and how they catch fish, grind
and pound rice and brew alcohol. The
similarity makes many tourists think
that they need to travel only one time
to one of the 13 provinces to view
the entire region. That is the biggest
obstacle of the Mekong Delta tourism
development.
The second barrier is the out-of-
date transportation infrastructure. It
takes around four hours to travel from
Ho Chi Minh City to Can Tho or from
Can Tho to Ca Mau, but the distance is
less than 200km. It takes us more than
six hours to drive 240km from Can Tho
to Ha Tien, losing a day on road.
At the moment, in some more de-
veloped countries in Southeast Asia, in
one day tourists can travel to multiple
destinations that are hundreds of kilo-
meters apart. With such bad roads, the
number of tourists increases by only 10
per cent each year.
Human resources play an impor-
tant role in developing of tourism, but it
seems that Mekong Delta provinces are
facing too many difficulties in develop-
ing this aspect.
According to the Tourism Develop-
ment Institute of Vietnam Administra-
tion for Tourism, it is forecast that by
2020 the region needs around 208,000
people to work in tourism indus-
try. However, currently we have only
20,000 labourers and only a half of
them are educated and trained profes-
sionally. The Mekong Delta lacks train-
ing and vocational schools and pro-
fessional teachers for tourism. Another
problem is the language barrier which
most dramatically affects homestays.
Are there any new tourism products
to attract international tourists to the
Mekong Delta region?
For years, many provinces in the re-
gion have held the same tours so it has
become boring. Currently we are pro-
moting exchange and cooperation be-
tween provinces to help them choose
their best products to help us promote
the character of each.
The specific tours must satisfy the
requirement to introduce the most
unique advantages of the land, the
people, festivals and lifestyle of the
Mekong Delta region. With this goal
in mind, the Mekong Delta Tourism
Association is coordinating with lo-
cal authorities to build specific tours.
Firstly we worked with Can Tho, An
Giang, Kien Giang, Ca Mau and Bac
Lieu to set up an experimental tour
called One Destination, Four Provinces.
At present, we are also working with
the provinces west of the Hau River,
including Vinh Long, Tien Giang, Ben
Tre and Tra Vinh, to draft a coopera-
tion regulation to develop tourism.
A typically ornate pagoda gate