During the past years, Tay Ninh’s tourism sector has witnessed development in terms of both scale and quality, had a positive influence on other industries and boosted local socio-economic development. In a discussion with us, Mr Nguyen Van Hai, Director of Tay Ninh’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, affirms, “Tay Ninh is blessed with good conditions to be turned into an ecological, cultural, historical and religious tourism centre in southeast Vietnam.”Hoang Lam reports.
Can you please introduce Tay Ninh’s potentials for tourism development and remarkable tourist attractions in the area? How has the province exploited this potential?
Tay Ninh’s tourism potentials are not many, but are of high value in terms of nature and human culture. The province is home to such prominent tourist attractions as Dau Tieng Lake, the largest man-made lake in the area covering 27,000 hectares and providing irrigation for over 72,000 hectares of farming land; North Tay Ninh Central Base and Cao Dai Great Temple in Tay Ninh. Particularly, Tay Ninh has Ba Den Mountain, the highest mountain peak in the southeast. Ba Den Mountain is now a well-known tourist destination, attracting some two million tourists. Some other tourist attractions can be named here, including Lo Go – Xa Mat National Park, Binh Thanh Ancient Tower and Long Dien Son tourist resort. In terms of cuisine, this land is famous for its special Trang Bang rice spaghetti and griddle cake which are very delicious when eaten with vegetables taken from the forest and prepared by excellent local chefs.
With an advantageous location and unique potential for tourism development, Tay Ninh has favourable conditions to attract tourists and develop tourism programmes appealing to local and international tourists. All these potentials have been exploited appropriately. Encouraging results have been achieved, with opportunities here for Tay Ninh to be turned into an ecological, cultural, historical and religious tourism centre in southeast Vietnam.
How have tourism promotion and advertisement and encouragement of economic sectors to participate in tourism development issues been tapped by the provincial authority? To facilitate tourism development, how has the province invested in infrastructure development and plans for development of tourism services?
Attraction of domestic and international investment in tourism has been paid attention to and supported via exhibitions, conferences and workshops in November 2011, in cooperation with Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, Tay Ninh successfully organized the workshop on promoting tourism investment in Tay Ninh and Southeast provinces. The province also creates very favourable conditions to draw investors to key tourist destinations in the province.
However, apart from Vinaconex’s investment project of VND25,000 billion in Dau Tieng Lake ecotourism attraction which has been approved by the provincial People’s Committee in principle, other investors have only stopped at site surveys or meetings for information.
In order to improve this situation, in addition to making adjustments to the master plan for Tay Ninh’s tourism development, it is necessary that the provincial authority do research and develop projects or even organize competitions to select appropriate and highly feasible projects which are appealing to investors. It is also critical that the province play an active role in inviting fully competent investors to invest in major tourist destinations which can then be act as the driving engine and create an investment spill over effect.
For tourism development, what is important is that each locality needs to develop its unique tourism products to attract more and more tourists. How has Tay Ninh responded to this issue, sir?
The tourism sector is preparing a plan to collaborate with departments and sectors to submit to the People’s Committee the project to develop Tay Ninh’s unique products with a view to building its image. These products are based on resources which have long existed in the life of Tay Ninh people, such as: Trang Bang noodle, Tay Ninh chilly salt, custard apple, Ba Den Mountain and Dau Tieng Lake.
The province is also making adjustments to the master plan for development of Tay Ninh tourism. A number of tourist routes and attractions will be established in order to connect tourist destinations together and thereby attract and maintain tourist retention in Tay Ninh.
Could you please share with us the guidelines for tourism development of Tay Ninh in 2012 and vision to 2015?
With the overall objective of sustainable tourism development, in coming time, the province will focus investment allocated from state budget in key areas of tourism development; prioritize infrastructure development at major areas of tourism development in order to attract investors. It will also conduct socialization of tourism development; encourage economic sectors to participate in tourism activities. At the same time, tax reduction and exemption policies are implemented in the area in both a strict and flexible manner for tourism development projects.
In 2012, the tourism sector participates in providing consultancy for the development of the Thematic Resolution of Provincial Standing Committee of the Party and the Action Plan for tourism development in the period of 2011 – 2015, orientation toward 2020 of the People’s Committee at provincial level; makes adjustments to the master plan for tourism development as well as revises the master plan and detailed plan of Ba Den mountain. Tay Ninh’s Provincial Committee of the Party and People’s Committee, together with central and local authorities, have had strong actions and enthusiastic instructions with a view to making stronger moves for the national tourism sector.
Vietnamese
