Dong Thap (VNS/VNA) - The Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap willorganise the Dong Thap Culture and Tourism Week from July 10-14.
The annual event promotes the provinces' tourism potential in culture, naturalresources and traditional craft villages, among others.
It is expected to strengthen tourism linkages and lead to new inter-provincialtours.
The event also acts as a platform for travel firms to seek co-operation andintroduce tourism products to customers.
The event will feature a series of cultural and tourism activities, including donca tai tu (Southern folk music) performances, writing calligraphy on lotusleaves, gastronomy contests, and folk games.
It will also introduce the province’s safe farm produce, traditional craftvillages, tourist attractions and food specialties.
Dong Thap province will coordinate with the central province of Quang Nam toset up a pavilion showcasing tourism products and cultural specialties of Cao Lanhtown and Hoi An town.
The event will include a conference to review tourism linkages between theMekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh City in the first half of the year.
“The province will organise FAM (familiarisation) trips for travel agents tovisit orchid gardens, agri-tourism models, Tram Chim National Park, and XeoQuyt historical and ecological sites,” said Vo Tien Thanh, director of theprovince’s Tourism Development Centre.
As part of the event, a conference on agricultural tourism will be held to findways to develop agro-tourism in the province in a sustainable and environmentalfriendly manner, Thanh said.
Nguyen Van Duong, chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, asked theDepartment of Culture, Sports and Tourism to strengthen tourism developmentlinkages with localities in the Mekong Delta and HCM City.
Ngo Quang Tuyen, deputy director of the department, said the province wasfocusing on community-based tourism to provide tourist experiences withhomestays, orchid gardens and examples of local daily life.
The province has developed 73 community-based tourism sites, with most of themin Lai Vung District, Thap Muoi district and Cao Lanh city.
Many households have developed models of community-based tourism that haveattracted many tourists and travel operators.
The Tourism Week event is a good opportunity for the province to promote trade,investment and cooperation in the tourism sector in an effort to make it a keysector in the province by 2020, he said.
The province welcomed 1.95 million tourists in the first six months of theyear, a year-on-year increase of 2.6 percent.
Tourism revenue was estimated at 500 billion VND (21.49 million USD), up 25 percentcompared to the same period last year. - VNS/VNA
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