Exploiting tourism potential for development

Potential for island, ecological and spiritual tourism

An Giang (new) has an area of over ^9,888km2 , located in the Southwest of Vietnam. This place possesses a mountain and forest ecosystem, diverse flora and fauna, a system of islands, rich cultural heritage... creating great potential for ecological tourism, island tourism, spirituality, culture, and agricultural development.

Going north of An Giang, visitors will be overwhelmed by the majestic That Son range, the beautiful natural scenery and the diversity of the Kinh, Khmer, Cham, and Chinese ethnic groups, along with many unique spiritual tourism destinations. An Giang impresses visitors with many typical festivals: the Via Ba Chua Xu Festival of Sam Mountain, the Bay Nui bull race, the Sen Dolta festival of the Khmer people, the Ramadan month of the Cham people... In particular, the Via Ba Chua Xu Festival of Sam Mountain was recognized by UNESCO as a representative intangible cultural heritage of humanity in 2024. This is also the 16th heritage of Vietnam and the second of the South to be recognized by UNESCO. With this title, the Via Ba Chua Xu Festival of Sam Mountain not only makes An Giang a destination attracting millions of pilgrims each year, but also helps the province build a famous spiritual cultural tourism brand at home and abroad.

In addition, An Giang also has the Oc Eo - Ba The archaeological site, which was ranked as a special national monument in 2012; in 2022, UNESCO officially included the Oc Eo - Ba The archaeological site in the list of proposed World Cultural Heritage dossiers. An Giang strives to complete and defend the dossier to request UNESCO to recognize this site as a World Cultural Heritage by 2026. According to experts, the Oc Eo - Ba The archaeological site is a potential tourism resource, with local characteristics... Tra Su cajuput forest in particular is famous to tourists from near and far for its forest ecological tourism.

The Ba Chua Xu Festival at Sam Mountain has been recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Photo: MY LINH

Going south of An Giang, visitors will experience vibrant island tourism. With 5 archipelagos that are still quite wild, over 140 large and small islands, especially the pearl island of Phu Quoc - where Khem beach (Kem beach) is in the top 50 most beautiful beaches on the planet, along with a series of invested international-class projects have turned this place into a world-famous "tourism paradise". Meanwhile, other islands in Kien Hai special zone such as Lai Son, Nam Du; Hai Tac archipelago, Tien Hai commune; Ba Hon Dam, Son Hai commune... have wild, peaceful beauty suitable for types of tourism that focus on exploration.

Ha Tien Thap Canh is also an interesting destination, which has been mentioned in poems such as Loc Tri village, Tieu Tu Than Chung, Kim Du Lan Dao, Thach Dong village... Ha Tien is also located on the R10 tourist route, so it is very convenient to develop road tourism with Cambodia and Thailand. Particularly, U Minh Thuong National Park is a world biosphere reserve, with great value for research and tourism... According to the An Giang Department of Tourism, thanks to the diversity and good exploitation of potentials, the province has become an attractive destination, attracting a large number of domestic and foreign tourists to visit and relax. In the first 6 months of 2025 alone, the province welcomed over 14.2 million visitors, including nearly 1 million international visitors. Total revenue from tourism is about 37,407 billion VND.

Restructuring tourism, creating sustainable value chains

Clearly identifying the strengths and potential of tourism in the province, the province always pays attention to investing in synchronous tourism infrastructure, focusing on developing key tourism areas, training human resources and developing high-quality tourism products and services... In particular, changing administrative boundaries will help the tourism industry to restructure comprehensively, especially in terms of tourism resource management, infrastructure connection and organizing synchronous tours... to create an attractive and sustainable tourism value chain.

“Currently, the industry is urgently reviewing the goals, tasks, and solutions for tourism development in the province's master plan for socio-economic development in the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050, to develop a provincial tourism development plan, ensuring synchronous connectivity, maximizing potential and advantages, and especially developing tourism space in the province in the new period...” - Director of An Giang Department of Tourism Bui Quoc Thai said.

In addition, An Giang also focuses on building products, positioning tourism brands associated with the main, unique image, imbued with the cultural identity of An Giang people as a competitive advantage with tourism markets; strengthening linkages and cooperation in developing provincial tourism in inter-regional and inter-regional relations both domestically and internationally. At the same time, focusing resources on creating breakthroughs, prioritizing investment in connecting transport systems and training human resources, digital transformation, green transformation of tourism; promoting the role of the community in building a civilized and friendly tourism community.

At the same time, the province promotes tourism investment promotion activities, encourages strategic investors to invest in complexes, large-scale projects, high-quality shopping and entertainment centers; welcomes domestic and international famtrip and presstrip delegations to survey and connect with An Giang tourism. In particular, the province strengthens coordination with diplomatic agencies and Vietnamese representative agencies abroad in communication and tourism promotion to promote An Giang tourism economy to develop rapidly and sustainably...

MY LINH - TRUNG HIEU

Source: https://baoangiang.com.vn/khai-thac-tiem-nang-du-lich-de-phat-trien-a423467.html