Bac Lieu 'accelerates' to turn potential in tourism into development advantage
After a long period of being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism activities in Bac Lieu have prospered again, fostering the other economic sectors to develop together.
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Despite not being as active as before, tourist sites in Bac Lieu these days have attracted a large number of visitors.
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| Hung Vuong Square is a popular tourist site in Bac Lieu. (Photo: VNA) |
Thoroughly promote strengths
According to the report from the Department of Culture, Information, Sports and Tourism of Bac Lieu, in the first 6 months of 2022, the province's revenue from services and tourism reached 1,700 billion VND (reaching 56% of the plan, up 76.2% over the same period). This result is very encouraging, especially after the tourism industry had almost been frozen during the 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to the attention and promotion from all sectors, tourism in Bac Lieu has prospered thanks to self-renewal and self-creation to attract a large number of visitors inside and outside the province.
Bac Lieu has 9 out of 21 of the most popular tourist attractions of the Mekong Delta, recognized by the Mekong Delta Tourism Association. In Bac Lieu City alone, there are 8 places to visit: the Memorial Park of Southern “Don ca tai tu” and the Composer Cao Van Lau, the Ho Nam ecotourism destinations, Hung Vuong Square, the Prince of Bac Lieu’s house, the artificial sea, Nha Mat tourist area, Quan Am Phat Dai, Saigon - Bac Lieu hotel, and the Bac Lieu wind farm.
Compared to some provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta, tourism in Bac Lieu has many advantages. One of them is that tourists don’t have to waste a lot of time moving around as the distance between the sites is relatively close.
Located right in the city center is the Prince of Bac Lieu's house, where visitors can see with their own eyes the place where he ate, stayed, and hear interesting anecdotes about this famous prince.
More than a 5-minute walk away from the Prince of Bac Lieu's house is the only stone clock in Vietnam, called "Thai Duong clock" built by the physicist Luu Van Lang in the early 20th century.
Or from the Prince of Bac Lieu's house, it only takes more than 10 minutes to travel by car to the Memorial Park of Southern “Don ca tai tu” and the Composer Cao Van Lau, a tourist attraction that tourists often visit when coming to this beautiful land. Here, visitors will enjoy the intangible cultural heritage of Southern “Don ca tai tu”, especially the famous song Da Co Hoai Lang.
About 10 km from here to the sea are famous tourist attractions such as Bac Lieu Bird Park, Quan Am Phat Dai, wind farms, Xiem Can pagoda, ancient longan garden...
In order for tourism to properly develop, the Vice Chairman of Bac Lieu Provincial People's Committee, Phan Thanh Duy affirmed, Bac Lieu is focusing on developing tourism multi-dimensionally, diverse and rich in types of products and destinations, and at the same time build unique and attractive tourism products of the land and people of Bac Lieu.
The province is also interested in coming up with a specific tourism promotion strategy in order to promote the image of Bac Lieu to domestic and foreign tourists; focus on training and fostering human resources serving in the tourism sector in all aspects, from professional qualifications, skills to behavior… to promote tourism development in Bac Lieu.
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| Tourists at the Memorial Park of Southern “Don ca tai tu” and the Composer Cao Van Lau. (Photo: Phuong Nghi) |
Fostering community tourism
The tourism industry in Bac Lieu enjoys a strong recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the basis for the province to set targets as well as solutions for implementation in the last 6 months of 2022, welcoming about 3.3 million tourists, tourism - service revenue reaching about 3,000 billion VND; striving to have 1 to 2 typical tourist attractions in the region, recognizing 1 to 3 hotels of 3 stars or more standards.
To achieve this goal, along with continuing to upgrade tourism products, especially the model of community tourism, Bac Lieu pays attention to the development of traditional craft village products, fosters the advantages of agricultural tourism products associated with tourism activities in rural areas, ensures cohesion, not overlapping with other provinces in the Mekong Delta to create authentic provincial products and attract tourists. The province has gradually built a safe and friendly tourism environment for visitors, especially during festivals and peak tourist seasons.
Tran Thi Lan Phuong, Director of the Department of Culture, Information, Sports and Tourism of Bac Lieu said: “A survey of some newly built community ecotourism sites in the area shows that besides the advantages, this model also has many limitations such as no methodical investment, so the development of products and services is monotonous and repetitive; the quality of human resources has not met the requirements; underdeveloped transport infrastructure…
On the basis of assessing the advantages and limitations of the community-based tourism model, Bac Lieu will have specific solutions in the near future.”
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| Bac Lieu wind farm is recognized as a typical tourist destination of the Mekong Delta in 2019. (Photo: Phuong Nghi) |
Bac Lieu is strengthening the promotion and advertisement of Bac Lieu tourism at tourism events, exhibitions, festivals, cultural exchange and tourism activities inside and outside the province; promoting cooperation, association, and tourism development in the western provinces and cities of the Mekong Delta, including Can Tho, An Giang, Kien Giang, Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, Hau Giang and Soc Trang. Along with that, the province is organizing training courses on tourism skills for employees working in tourism businesses; building the image of Bac Lieu as a safe destination for tourism.
It can be seen that, thanks to great determination, along with new and appropriate guidelines, policies and creativity, Bac Lieu’s tourism in recent years has overcome many difficulties and developed quite spectacularly, becoming a key economic sector of the province, meeting the trends and requirements of the locality and the country amid development and integration.
The land is rich, the people of Bac Lieu are gentle, hospitable and have a typical liberal lifestyle. For anyone who has been to Bac Lieu, it is hard to forget.
