Two Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta localities
and a Central Highland province are discussing the possibility of a co-operative
tourism programme that will allow them to offer better quality tourism products
at reasonable prices.

Tourism
representatives of Can Tho City, and Kien Giang and Lam Dong provinces agreed at
a recent meeting in Can Tho City that while each of the localities had their own
strengths, these can be multiplied through effective joint action.

Diep
Hoang Tung, deputy director of the Golf Viet Nam JSC in Can Tho, noted that the
traditional Vietnamese adage “buon co ban, ban co phuong” (for trading friends
are needed, for selling a community is needed) applied not only to business
activities in general, but also to tourism services in particular.

Co-operation between the three provinces would support the creation of tourism
products carrying characteristics particular to each province, avoiding the
current phenomenon of different provinces coming up with identical products,
Tung said.

Acting
together would have the added advantage of regular prices, not to mention other
tourism-related policies that would make visitors more comfortable with
travelling in the region, he added.

Tung
said that to establish such co-operative ties, it was necessary to draw up a
master tourism development programme for the three provinces.

Le Van
Men, deputy director of the Can Tho Trade and Investment Promotion Centre, said
that inter-provincial co-operative ties was a strategic development policy that
would promote sustainable development of Viet Nam’s tourism industry.

It would
generate more resources to promote tourism and better exploit the advantages and
potentials of each locality to create a diverse range of products that can
attract both domestic and foreign tourists, he said. It would also help develop
the basic elements needed for tourism development – natural and human resources,
infrastructure, and technology, Men said.

Even as
a common tourism development plan was being discussed, several tourism promotion
co-operation documents were signed at the meeting by travel agencies and tour
operators. Operators also signed 14 contracts to open “One way – Three
Destinations” tours for both domestic and foreign tourists.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News