"Mysterious paradise" of Kien Giang

Tourists go down to the tourist boat pier to visit Dong Ho lagoon.

Impressions of "Ha Tien Ten Sceneries"

Ha Tien city is located nearly 90km from Rach Gia city - the provincial capital of Kien Giang - with a coastline adjacent to the Gulf of Thailand and a border with the Kingdom of Cambodia. In the 18th century, Ha Tien was an important bustling port on the Asian trade route through the Gulf of Thailand.

For centuries, this land has been famous for "Ha Tien Thap Canh" - the 10 most beautiful landscapes in Ha Tien, including: Dong Ho Lagoon, Binh San Mountain, Sac Tu Tam Bao Pagoda, Giang Thanh River, Da Dung Mountain, Mui Nai Mountain... Among the landscapes that attract tourists in Ha Tien, the most typical are Tien Hai island commune and Dong Ho Lagoon.

Tien Hai island commune (or Hai Tac archipelago) consists of 16 islands, located about 28km from the center of Ha Tien city, with a total natural area of 283ha, with 485 households and 1,944 people. This place has great potential for tourism development, exploitation, and aquaculture with many beautiful beaches, clear blue water, fine white sand, pristine natural landscapes, and fresh air. The main occupation of the islanders is fishing and aquaculture, some households do tourism business. Therefore, this is one of the potential community tourism areas, favored by tourists for its pristine scenery and experiences of fishing village life, enjoying seafood specialties...

Dong Ho Lagoon is located in Quarter V (Dong Ho Ward), adjacent to the border between Vietnam and Cambodia. This is a typical mangrove area of the Mekong Delta, with an area of 1,384 hectares, with special ecological value, high biodiversity and an ideal environment for many animal species to live with 25 species of mangrove trees that play a role in expanding the mainland, nurturing tidal animals and protecting the sea dyke and the environment. Therefore, this place has the potential to develop sustainable community ecotourism.

Join hands to develop community tourism

With diverse and unique tourism potential, Ha Tien is identified as one of the three areas in the "golden triangle" of tourism development in Kien Giang province (along with Rach Gia city and Phu Quoc island). Accordingly, Kien Giang province has developed a project to develop community ecotourism in Tien Hai commune for the period 2014 - 2020 and a project to develop community ecotourism in Dong Ho lagoon for the period 2015 - 2020 to exploit the potential and develop community tourism in a sustainable manner at these two locations.

Director of Kien Giang Province Department of Tourism Bui Quoc Thai said that since the project was issued, the authorities of Tien Hai commune and Dong Ho ward have established a Management Board (MB), in which the head of the board is the leader of the commune and ward and the members are officials and civil servants of departments and branches. Local people participate as both tourism workers and managers of tourism activities.

Thanks to the good propaganda work on the importance of tourism development, the Dong Ho lagoon eco-tourism development project has 30 households registered to participate in aquaculture models, guiding tourists to participate in experiences, serving traditional music and cuisine. At Tien Hai community tourism site, there are 17 households registered to participate, of which 11 households provide food and accommodation services, 6 households participate in guiding tourists to experience visiting islands and fishing for fun, visiting fish cage farming models.

In addition, the project also supports households to borrow investment capital, improve the quality of accommodation services, each household 30 million VND; 12 households invest in boats to take tourists to visit Dong Ho lagoon and the stork garden, explore the water coconut forest and experience the leaf weaving method of the households. Tien Hai commune has 6 households investing in boats to take tourists to experience the islands, visit the fish cage farming model and go fishing for fun. The infrastructure and transportation system in these places is also invested, such as building 23.5km2 of concrete road around the island with 2 wharves, expanding 2 domestic water reservoirs with a capacity of over 50,000m3, building Dong Ho lagoon tourist wharf with a total cost of 1.56 billion VND.

In addition to investing in the infrastructure system, Kien Giang Department of Tourism also focuses on improving the quality of human resources by organizing 9 training courses for people and managers on community tourism. Thanks to that, the number of tourists arriving during the implementation of the 2 projects was 277,219, thereby increasing people's income, contributing to poverty reduction. The poverty rate in the 2 localities has decreased compared to before the project implementation; in Dong Ho lagoon, it decreased from 243 households to 32 households, and in Tien Hai commune, it decreased from 24 households to 5 households. Thanks to the effectiveness of these models, in the coming time, Kien Giang will replicate them in many other places in the province.

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