BacLieu (VNA) - The southern province of Bac Lieu is intensifyingefforts to boost tourism development with a focus on key service products toattract more visitors.

Amidstthe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the province is implementing tourismstimulus plans, attracting the participation of tourism businesses andensuring COVID-19 prevention and control.

Theprovince aims to increase tourist demands with the launching of various tourismactivities including a recent programme called “Vietnamese peopleprioritise travelling around Vietnam.

Morethan 20 enterprises and many large tourist destinations are joining theprogramme to boost domestic market travel demand.

Theprovincial Steering Committee for Tourism Development has also launched specialpromotion programmes including “peak months” to attract visitors to theprovince.

Itplans to choose “peak months” such as those with big holidays in the third andfourth quarter of 2020 to hold cultural and tourism events, including byincreasing the number of art performances at Cao Van Lau Theatre.

Inaddition, Bac Lieu is focusing on building tours associated with culturalactivities, ecotourism and practical experiences such as those to theprovince’s wind power plant, Bac Lieu dandy's home, art memorial houses of don ca tai tu (southern folk music) andCao Van Lau artist, Buddhism temples, Tac Say Cathedral, Dong Noc Nang relic, HungThien and Giac Hoa pagodas.

Theprovince is developing a model of community tourism introducing visitors totraditional handicraft villages and their beautiful products.

Promotionof the advantages of agricultural tourism in rural areas has also beenimplemented to link key tourist zones in the province to create a uniqueproduct but not overlapping with those in other Mekong Delta provinces.

BacLieu has intensified inspection and supervision and strictly dealt withunits which let social disorder occur in localities andaffect the safety and rights of tourists.

Atthe same time, the province has requested tourism service businesses,travel agencies, destinations and transportation managementunits provide quality and attractive tourism products with preferentialpromotional plans to lure more visitors to Bac Lieu.

Aproject to develop tours for sightseeing, experiencing and shoppingat the super-intensive and high-tech shrimp breeding areas under theco-operation investment of Vietnam and Australia will be implementedalong with the development of a tourism model of practical experience inthe process of producing, harvesting and purchasing salt-based tourism productsand gifts.

Theprovince also works for tourism development with Hanoi, HCM City, MekongDelta localities and the southeast and south-central regions

Thisyear, it plans to achieve tourism revenue of more than 3trillion VND, up 18-30 percent compared to last year, of which revenuefrom restaurant and hotel services is expected to reach more than 1.2 trillionVND, up 18-30 percent compared to 2019.

Italso hopes to welcome 3 million tourists, an increase of 10 percent over lastyear.

Atarget of receiving more than 7 million tourists and a total tourism revenueestimated at 10 trillion VND are also among targets that Bac Lieu has set for2025, as well as to make a contribution of 7 percent tothe province's GRDP.

However,due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism industry in Bac Lieuis facing many difficulties.

Manytourism firms have fallen into unstable and small operation.

Inthe first nine months of the year, the whole sector grossed total revenue ofjust 1.34 trillion VND compared to 3 trillion VND or 44.8 percent ofthe yearly target, down by 20.7 percent compared to the same period in2019.

Theprovince has only welcomed 1.58 million visitors while the target in 2020is 3 million visitors, making up 52.6 percent of the plan and down 6.7 percentover the same period last year./.