Dong Nai strives to make tourism an important economic sector

Dong Nai tourism has many improvements

Reporter: First of all, can you outline the highlights of the tourism picture that Dong Nai is fortunate to possess and tell us about some outstanding results and substantial changes in this field from the beginning of 2024 until now?

Comrade Le Thi Ngoc Loan: In the first 9 months of 2024, Dong Nai province attracted nearly 1,000 billion VND of capital from enterprises to invest in developing new tourism products. In particular, Son Tien tourist area put into operation the Son Tien Amazing World thematic park with many high-quality entertainment activities; 2 new hotels put into operation; Bo Cap Vang tourist area put into operation the Waterfall bathing area; Dong Nai Nature - Culture Reserve organized the opening of an accommodation area at Ba Hao Lake... to increase tourist attraction.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has officially recognized Cat Tien National Park as the 72nd protected area in the world to achieve the IUCN Green List title. This is a major step forward in nature conservation and biodiversity in Vietnam.

Along with that, the Golden Scorpion Tourist Area was voted as one of the 10 most favorite eco-tourism destinations by the Intellectual Property and Creativity magazine in collaboration with the Business Science Union, contributing to enhancing the position of eco-tourism in Dong Nai.

Cultural, sports and tourism activities are widely organized in Dong Nai province such as: Ong Pagoda Festival, Long Khanh Fruit Festival, Tri An Ultra Marathon 2024 - Echoes of Spring, Bien Hoa Open Half Marathon, etc. have contributed to attracting visitors and promoting Dong Nai tourism.

Ecotourism investment activities are of interest to investors. After the Dong Nai Provincial People's Committee approved the Ecotourism and Recreation Project at the Tan Phu Protective Forest Management Board and Dong Nai Nature and Culture Reserve, many investors have shown interest and sent in their investment registration documents. Of which, the Reserve has received 12 documents and is coordinating with relevant departments and branches to appraise them, and the Tan Phu Protective Forest Management Board has signed a forest environment lease contract with The Coi Joint Stock Company to implement the ecotourism project.

With many positive signs, in the first 9 months of 2024, Dong Nai tourism welcomed 2,723,000 visitors (of which domestic visitors: 2,642,716, international visitors: 80,284), an increase of 21% and tourism service revenue reached 1,827 billion VND, an increase of 34.2% over the same period in 2023.

Tourists experience fruit gardens in Long Khanh city.

Reporter: What are the unique strengths and typical tourism products of the locality that have strong appeal and promote rapid growth in both the number of tourists and revenue as above, sir?

Comrade Le Thi Ngoc Loan: Dong Nai is a locality with advantages in tourism development from natural resources, landscapes to cultural resources including forests, rivers, mountains, lakes, waterfalls, terrain, and geomorphology. Therefore, in recent years, Dong Nai has gradually promoted its potential and advantages to develop tourism and is now a world biosphere reserve. Cat Tien National Park has recently been officially recognized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as the 72nd protected area in the world to achieve the Green List title.

Son Tien tourist area has been recognized by the Vietnam Record Organization with 11 records; the golf course system, especially Long Thanh golf course, is one of the most beautiful golf courses in Vietnam; Bo Cap Vang tourist area has just been voted as one of the 10 most favorite eco-tourism destinations by the Intellectual Property and Creation magazine in collaboration with the Association of Science and Entrepreneurs.

Besides, agricultural tourism and discovery tourism are strengths and products to attract many tourists to visit and travel in Dong Nai.

Reporter: One of the recent efforts of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism is to strengthen communication, introduce the image, potential and beauty of Dong Nai tourism and promote, promote connections and cooperation in the tourism sector. How effective are these activities initially, sir?

Comrade Le Thi Ngoc Loan: In the program of activities to promote and advertise Dong Nai tourism in 2024, the tourism industry has also proposed appropriate and innovative directions of activities to achieve effectiveness in promoting and advertising tourism in the province. Activities to promote Dong Nai tourism potential and strengths through mass media have been promoted; a set of publications introducing potential, tourism investment projects, tourism information has been produced; building and promoting Dong Nai tourism image on the North-South railway line; Tan Son Nhat International Airport; participating in promoting tourism domestically and internationally...

It can be said that the promotional activities in recent times have not only contributed to the growth of the number of tourists coming to Dong Nai, but also attracted investment resources for tourism development. At the same time, improving the quality, efficiency and professionalism in promotional activities has also contributed to building and developing the Dong Nai tourism brand.

From there, create consensus and high unanimity in the awareness and actions of all levels, sectors, localities, units and people, determined to build Dong Nai tourism into an important economic sector and develop sustainably. At the same time, bring high efficiency, increase investment in tourism; develop high-quality products and increase competitiveness for service products.

Secretary of Dong Nai Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Hong Linh surveyed Chua Chan Mountain Tourist Area, Xuan Loc District in 2021.

Reporter: According to you, what opportunities are facing tourism in the area to exploit its full potential, provide high-quality tourism products, and attractive service products to attract and retain a segment of tourists staying in Dong Nai in the coming time, especially when the international airport comes into operation?

Comrade Le Thi Ngoc Loan: According to the plan, Long Thanh International Airport will be put into operation in September 2026. The operation of this airport will open up opportunities for Dong Nai tourism to develop rapidly in the following years. It will create a driving force to attract investors in the tourism sector, especially investors with capacity and experience to implement large projects. The traffic infrastructure connecting the airport will be invested synchronously, creating jobs, increasing revenue for ancillary service establishments for the tourism industry, attracting many international visitors to Dong Nai.

However, it also brings challenges to the province's tourism industry: tourism facilities must be synchronized, tourism products must be attractive and of high quality, human resources must have expertise, professionalism and foreign language communication skills to retain tourists in Dong Nai.

To take advantage of this opportunity, Dong Nai tourism industry has been focusing on exploiting the potential of eco-tourism and resorts. Specifically, promoting investment calls and concentrating all resources to implement key tourism projects of the province (Chua Chan Mountain - Le Lake Tourism Project, Mai Waterfall - Boiling Lake Tourism Project, etc.). Upgrading and investing in entertainment services at existing tourist destinations. Improving service quality; promoting communication, applying digital technology and developing smart tourism to help tourists conveniently look up and learn about destination and service information in the fastest and most accurate way.

In addition, to create attraction and identity for Dong Nai tourism, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has oriented and coordinated with localities in the province and tourism experts to research and deploy pilot models of community tourism and agricultural tourism with indigenous cultural elements - traditional craft villages - farming practices - local cuisine to attract international visitors.

Ecotourism experience at Cat Tien National Park.

Long Thanh Airport with 5 tourist routes

Reporter: However, without tourism planning, Dong Nai tourism cannot be developed. And I am very happy that in the provincial planning for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050, 5 tourism routes have been identified with the center being Long Thanh International Airport spreading out in all directions. Could you provide more information about the 5 tourism routes that investors and tourists are interested in?

Comrade Le Thi Ngoc Loan: At the conference on tourism development last August, Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Hong Linh oriented 5 routes with the center being Long Thanh international airport for investment and development, including: Long Thanh-Bien Hoa-Vinh Cuu airport route; Long Thanh-Dinh Quan-Tan Phu airport route; Long Thanh-Long Khanh-Xuan Loc airport route; Long Thanh-Nhon Trach airport route and Long Thanh-Cam My airport route.

For each route, continue to encourage operators to invest in upgrading existing service products. In addition, investors, especially those with capacity and experience, will be invited to invest in new destinations aiming for high quality to create highlights.

The Long Thanh-Bien Hoa-Vinh Cuu airport route will focus on developing river tourism, riverside tourism and especially building Tri An lake into a national tourist area to become the highlight of the route.

The Long Thanh-Dinh Quan-Tan Phu airport route, in addition to the highlight of Cat Tien National Park, will develop many more eco-tourism destinations at the Tan Phu Protective Forest Management Board and commercial service areas in the Long Thanh airport area, and can also connect with destinations in Lam Dong province.

The Long Thanh-Long Khanh-Xuan Loc airport route will develop an additional high-quality complex at the national scenic spot of Chua Chan mountain to create a highlight for the route, while also being able to connect destinations in Binh Thuan province.

The Long Thanh-Nhon Trach airport route focuses on developing high-end resorts, entertainment, and shopping areas as highlights of the route, while also connecting to the Can Gio biosphere reserve.

The Long Thanh-Cam My airport route focuses on developing commercial service areas to create highlights for the route, while connecting with destinations in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province.

Reporter: Tourism has received special attention from the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial People's Committee, issuing a specialized Resolution on developing tourism into an important economic sector. In the process of putting the Resolution into practice, what breakthrough solutions is the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism urgently implementing so that tourism will soon become one of the pillars of the local economy as expected?

Comrade Le Thi Ngoc Loan: Based on Resolution No. 04-NQ/TU dated December 30, 2021 of the Dong Nai Provincial Party Committee on developing tourism into an important economic sector, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has coordinated with relevant units to advise the Provincial People's Committee to issue many plans for implementation.

Currently, Dong Nai has been synchronously implementing many groups of solutions to raise awareness of tourism development, invest in developing infrastructure and technical facilities for tourism, build unique tourism products and diversify tourism products, develop tourism human resources, ensure tourism environment, security and order, tourist safety, promote tourism, improve capacity and effectiveness of state management of tourism, and apply science and technology.

Forest ecotourism in Dong Nai is increasingly attracting tourists.

In particular, priority is given to the task group of investing in developing infrastructure and technical facilities for tourism and developing high-quality tourism products.

Regarding the formation of new high-quality tourism products, Dong Nai province has attracted a number of tourism development projects such as: Mai Waterfall - Bau Nuoc Boiling Water Tourism Project (Dinh Quan); ecological tourism and resort complex project in Chua Chan Mountain and Nui Le Lake, Xuan Loc District; semi-wild animal breeding area project (Safari) - Dong Nai Nature and Culture Reserve; river tourism route project.

Recently, relevant units have actively organized many meetings to urge progress and consider removing obstacles for tourism development projects. Priority is given to the project of eco-tourism and resort complex in Chua Chan mountain area and the Mai Waterfall - Bau Nuoc Boiling Water Tourism Project for early implementation, creating high-quality products. At the same time, calling on economic sectors to participate in tourism development investment according to the approved plan, contributing to creating a new look for the tourism industry in the coming time.

Reporter: Thank you for this interview.

Source: https://nhandan.vn/dong-nai-no-luc-dua-du-lich-tro-thanh-nganh-kinh-te-quan-trong-post834338.html