AnGiang (VNA) – The Mekong Delta province of An Giang is striving to takefull advantage of its potential for tourism development and turn it into a spearheadeconomic sector.

Accordingto Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Binh, theprovince issued a resolution on tourism development until 2020 withorientations through 2025, which identifies four key tourism types, namelyspiritual tourism, eco- and resort tourism, eco and water tourism and cultural– heritage tourism.

Measureshave been devised to tighten the management of tourism activities whileboosting efforts to attract international tourists and improve tourism servicequality.

By2020, the province hopes to welcome 10.1 million visitors and earn about 4 trillionVND (176.36 million USD) from tourism services, making up 8.8 percent of itsgross regional domestic product (GRDP).

By2025, the figures are expected to reach 12.9 million visitors and 15.3 percentof GRDP.

Torealise the targets, the sector needs to focus on publicity work to get thecommunity more involved in tourism development, invest in infrastructurefacilities, particularly the traffic network to explore border tourism, saidBinh, adding that efforts are also needed to mobilse resources to buildinfrastructure and train human resources.

DangDuc Phong, Director of the Centre for Tourism Promotion, underlined the need tooffer a wide range of tourism products, particularly community-based tourism,sports tourism, resort tourism, among others.

Investmentshould be made in key products to develop brand names for the locality’stourism while protecting natural resources, cultural values and theenvironment, Phong said.

AnGiang has cultural diversity with four ethnic groups, namely Kinh, Khmer,Cham, and Chinese, and a wide range of traditional festivals, such as Ba ChuaXu Nui Sam in Chau Doc and Bay Nui (Seven Mountains) cow racing festival,according to Director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports andTourism Nguyen Van Len.

AnGiang has 15 major tourism sites, including Nui Cam and Nui Sam tourism sites.Cu Lao Ong Ho tourism site in My Hoa Hung commune was named among nationaltourism sites in the Master Plan for tourism development in the Mekong Deltaregion by 2020 with a vision to 2030.

Thenumber of visitors to An Giang has increased rapidly, from 4.5 million in 2010 to6.5 million in 2016, including 70,000 foreigners, generating 3.2 trillion VND(140 million USD).-VNA