“Three-Pillar” Policy Package to Unlock Tourism Growth

Vinh Long is moving from simply tapping its tourism potential to developing products, building its brand, and creating greater value. Our reporter interviewed Nguyen Thi Ngoc Dung, Deputy Director of the Vinh Long Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, about the values that will shape the province’s tourism brand and the “three-pillar” policy package designed to unlock resources, attract investment, and make tourism an important economic sector.

What opportunities are available for businesses to invest in culture, sports, and tourism in Vinh Long? What mechanisms can help unlock and channel social resources into these areas?

The adjustment of the Provincial Planning and development plans for culture, sports, and tourism aims to reorganize the development space, make better use of potential, and align with the socio-economic development direction of the new Vinh Long. On this basis, we have identified river and garden ecotourism, agricultural, cultural, and community tourism as distinctive tourism products, while improving service quality, creating greater value, and gradually building the Vinh Long tourism brand.

The planning provides a basis for identifying key areas, interprovincial tourism routes, and spaces for landscape and resource protection, ensuring balanced development with agriculture, urban and rural areas, infrastructure, and the environment. The province is also strengthening regional linkages, expanding domestic and international visitor markets, and developing supporting services such as trade, transportation, accommodation, cuisine, and craft villages.

Following the merger, the development space has expanded, creating conditions for developing interprovincial tourism routes, diversifying products, and strengthening regional linkages. This also provides a basis for reorganizing tourism space in a coordinated way, making better use of natural, cultural, and human resources, creating more jobs, increasing incomes, and improving local livelihoods.

The Ok Om Bok Festival in Vinh Long Province

With its advantages in rivers and waterways, coastline, orchards, heritage, and the cultural intersection of Kinh, Khmer, and Chinese communities, what distinctive values can shape Vinh Long’s tourism brand? What does the province need to do to turn these advantages into products and real competitiveness?

As many Mekong Delta localities share advantages in rivers, waterways, and orchards, and all have gained coastal areas following the merger, Vinh Long cannot compete simply by repeating existing values. Therefore, we are shifting from a mindset of exploiting resources to creating experiences, with local culture as the core value for building a distinctive identity and positioning a differentiated and sustainable tourism brand.

Vinh Long’s distinction lies in the cultural intersection of Kinh, Khmer, and Chinese communities, combined with its orchard lifestyle and river ecosystem. This provides a foundation for creating authentic, close-to-life experiences where visitors not only sightsee but also “live alongside local people,” exploring local culture, lifestyles, and identity.

To turn these advantages into products and competitiveness, the province is focusing on four groups of solutions: developing distinctive products that explore cultural depth through cuisine, craft villages, festivals, orchard life, and river experiences; linking destinations to form product chains, promoting community tourism and experiential products, and gradually developing a nighttime economy suited to local conditions; improving human resources, with a focus on training and developing direct and indirect tourism workers; and improving service quality and competitiveness by accelerating digital transformation, promotion, marketing, and the development of Vinh Long’s tourism image in a professional, distinctive, and sustainable direction.

The province is developing a strategic “three-pillar” tourism policy package comprising a Provincial Party Committee resolution, a tourism development plan, and a People’s Council resolution on mechanisms and policies. What breakthroughs will this package create in unlocking resources, attracting investment, and making tourism an important economic sector in Vinh Long?

The “three-pillar” policy package will create a coordinated policy structure, from strategic direction and implementation to support mechanisms, helping unlock resources, attract investment, and lay a long-term foundation for making tourism an important economic sector in Vinh Long.

First, institutional and strategic alignment. The Provincial Party Committee resolution provides strategic direction; the provincial People’s Committee will translate it into a tourism development plan; and the provincial People’s Council will complete mechanisms and policies and allocate resources for support. This alignment demonstrates the province’s strategic priority for tourism development while providing a basis for businesses to invest with greater confidence.

Second, defining development space and investment directions. The tourism development plan will reorganize tourism space and clearly identify areas, products, and development directions, helping businesses and residents proactively select investment fields and locations while limiting fragmented development. Alongside this, the province will improve human resources, accelerate digital transformation, apply technology and smart tourism solutions, thereby improving service quality, promotion and marketing, and visitor experiences, while gradually positioning the Vinh Long tourism brand.

Third, using “seed capital” to mobilize social resources. The provincial People’s Council resolution is expected to provide support for essential items such as homestays, tourism service businesses, visitor facilities, inland waterway piers, and tourist transportation vehicles. Initial budget support will serve as a catalyst, creating momentum to attract private capital to invest in tourism facilities and the broader tourism ecosystem.

The “three-pillar” policy package therefore not only addresses immediate needs but also creates a long-term foundation, gradually transforming Vinh Long tourism from “raw potential” into higher value-added products, contributing to the goal of making tourism an important economic sector with an increasing contribution to the province’s GRDP under Resolution 13-NQ/TU dated July 10, 2026 of the Vinh Long Provincial Party Committee on tourism development in Vinh Long for 2026-2030, with a vision to 2045.

What solutions will you focus on to improve services for businesses and promote social participation in culture, sports, and tourism?

We are focusing on two groups of solutions: improving service quality and administrative reform, and promoting social participation and mobilizing private resources.

First, improving service quality and administrative reform. We will continue to improve transparency, review and simplify procedures, and shorten processing times for matters related to tour operations, tour guide cards, advertising, and the organization of cultural and sporting events, while accelerating online submission and result delivery through the province’s public service portal. Alongside this, we will strengthen dialogue, provide legal support, and address obstacles through conferences and direct dialogue between authorities, businesses, and organizations in the culture, sports, and tourism sectors. We will also provide data on tourism development space and cultural and sports planning to help businesses proactively develop investment and business plans and avoid overlap. We will coordinate with universities in the province to improve human resources, make effective use of trained workers, and provide digital and foreign-language skills training for employees at businesses and service establishments, thereby improving service quality and competitiveness.

Second, promoting social participation and mobilizing private resources. We will advise on policies to support tourism development, using the state budget as “seed capital” to attract residents and businesses to invest in and upgrade tourism facilities, infrastructure, and services. We will encourage businesses to co-organize and sponsor large-scale cultural, sporting, and tourism events, thereby reducing budget pressure, improving event professionalism, and creating additional opportunities to promote business brands.

Thank you very much!

By Ngo Khuyen, Vietnam Business Forum