Filling out the Tourist Map of the Southwest Region

Tra Vinh is considered an attractive destination of the Mekong Delta Region (MDR) by converging favourable geographical location, landscape and biodiversity areas with rivers, sea, mangroves, and evergreen vegetation. Visiting Tra Vinh, the visitors will be impressed by the beauty of peace, nature and people who are always kind and friendly.

Tra Vinh is known a potential site of cultural tourism resources, waterfront, resort, and beach. In particular, Ba Dong Beach, located at Duy Hai district, is one of the rare beaches in the South that retains wild beauty with two large beaches: Vam Lang Nuoc and Vam Khau Lau surrounded by sand, fresh sea and tranquillity. This place is an attraction for tourists to Tra Vinh. Initially, many projects of spiritual and ecotourism tourism have been deployed to meet the requirements of tourists. At the same time, once the projects as a flow of large tonnage vessels to Hai Hau completed, Duyen Hai power plants, Dinh An economic zone, Ba Dong beach will welcome a large amount of visitors coming here.

 

Near Ba Dong beach, there is a hot mineral water for health treatment. If two landmarks are promoted, Tra Vinh can build up luxury and health treatment resorts. Besides, Tra Vinh is always associated with stunning and orchards characterizing the Mekong Delta for development of eco-tourism. The province has many famous islands like Cu Lao Tri Long, Long Hoa, Tan Qui, Con Ngheu, mangrove systems and a variety of fruits and seafood.

 

But the most unique heritages in Tra Vinh are temples. Nowhere in the southwest has as many temples as here. Featured as land of many Khmer people, Tra Vinh has 141 Khmer temples, including Theravada Buddhism ancient temple that retains almost original characteristics of Khmer culture. There are 4 ancient temples that are listed national heritages; they are Pong Chray Kong (Cave Temple), Angkorette Pali - Angkorajaborey - Ang Pagoda, Nodol, and Samrong ek.

 

Tra Vinh also known for legendary sights such as Ba Om Pond, a scenic icon of the Mekong Delta. The pond is surrounded by trees hundreds of years old with roots protruding from the ground.

 

Especially, Tra Vinh is always associated with the unique cultural festival, attracting visitors from everywhere; some typical festivals include Nghinh Ong ceremony at Ba Chua Xu Temple at My Long Beach, Chnam Thmay Chol ceremony, Le Sel Dolta and Moon ceremonies. In addition, this area has many historical sites with milestones of Tra Vinh and traditional villages preserved for many years.

 

In order to promote the advantages of the province, in recent years, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has signed agreements with many agencies of Can Tho and Ho Chi Minh City and other eastern provinces of the Mekong Delta to form local tours across the provinces in the region. At the same time, Tra Vinh promotes its potentials and characteristics. Therefore, in 2014, total number of tourists to Tra Vinh has reached 320,000, up 7.38 percent compared with 2013, of which there are 8,900 international tourists. Total tourism revenue has reached VND 89.3 billion, an increase of VND 13.996 billion, compared with 2013. The province has invested in building infrastructure of two important tourist resorts: Ba Dong eco-tourism zone and Ba Om Pond, along with private eco-tourism areas, to meet tourism demand.

 

However, despite much potential to develop tourism, particularly eco-tourism, Tra Vinh lacks some entertainment, dining, and shopping areas for tourists. Tran Thanh Thuong, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Tra Vinh, to overcome this limitation, Tra Vinh will increase investment to build the centres of entertainment, shopping, and auxiliary services for the tourism industry. The province is also calling for investment projects such as Hang Duong- My Long eco-tourism zone (Cau Ngan district), Cu Lao Long Hoa eco-tourism zone (Chau Thanh district), Cu Lao Long Tri eco-tourism zone (Tra Vinh City). After such the projects, along with other core tourism projects of the province, are completed, there are will be more diversified tourism products, providing various types of tours and entertainment for the tourists.

 

Tra Vinh is also focusing on developing new products to serve the tourists, such as Long Island Tri (Tra Vinh City) and Tan Quy Islet (Cau Ke district). Besides, due to variety of festivals throughout the year, many cultural and historical monuments, and places of worship of religious beliefs as well as 142 Khmer temples, Tra Vinh will develop spiritual tourism through many policies to attract more projects of reconstructing, renovating, and restoring national historic and cultural heritages at national and provincial levels.

 

Besides, the provinces will attract more investment to improve tourism facilities and develop new products to turn good ideas into real unique tourism products to offer selling points and increase competitiveness of the tourism products of Tra Vinh.