Ba Ria - Vung Tau Woos Investors into Six Tourism Complexes

4:12:03 PM | 26/7/2018

Tourist arrivals to Ba Ria - Vung Tau province rise 13 per cent a year on average and its tourism revenue climbs 16 per cent. In the first six months of 2018, revenue of accommodation services totalled VND4,550 billion (US$198 million), up 12.5 per cent year on year, and revenue of travel services was VND1,026 billion (US$44.5 million), up 13.8 per cent. These impressive figures were released at the Tourism Investment Promotion Conference 2018, themed "Potential and opportunity for development" organised by the Ba Ria - Vung Tau Provincial People's Committee.

After introducing local tourism strengths, Mr Trinh Hang, Director of Ba Ria - Vung Tau Tourism Department, said that the province is now home to 128 domestic and foreign tourism investment projects with total investment capital. US$9.447 billion and VND34,789 billion (US$1.5 billion). Most projects are located in Vung Tau City, Xuyen Moc, Dat Do, Long Dien and Con Dao districts. He said, in addition to reducing the time needed to process investment-licensing procedures from 35 days to 5-10 days, what interests tourism investors is the introduction of bidding procedures and processes and criteria of selecting investors for land with high commercial value. Besides, the province has offered attractive investment incentives to leverage the development of the tourism sector. Particularly, tourism development investment projects in Chau Duc and Xuyen Moc districts will be entitled to the highest incentives under the current law. Addressing the conference, Mr Nguyen Hong Linh, Secretary of Ba Ria - Vung Tau Provincial Party Committee, said, by diversifying tourism products, in the 2016 - 2020 period, the province will focus on developing four types of tourism: beach resort, MICE, historical - spiritual tourism, and high-class ecological tourism. These tourism forms enable Ba Ria - Vung Tau province to effectively unlock its tourism products.

He added that, in addition to its efforts to diversify and upgrade tourism products, Ba Ria - Vung Tau province will focus on courting investors into six tourism complexes: Vung Tau City Tourism Complex; Long Hai - Phuoc Hai Tourism Complex and vicinity; Ba Ria City - Nui Dinh Tourism Complex and vicinity; Ho Tram - Binh Chau Tourism Complex; Con Dao Tourism Complex; and tourism clusters along rivers and mangrove forests on the Dinh River, lower reaches of the Dinh River, Ray River, Cai Mep - Thi Vai River and Vung Tau - Can Gio Route. Priority is given to well-branded, well-reputed, experienced and powerful financial corporations and investors to develop large-scale projects and high-quality tourism products to lure more and more high-profile visitors who tend to spend more during their trips and for their experiences. "With the aim of building a transparent and open business and investment environment, provincial leaders pledged to assist investors to deal with difficulties and obstacles in all stages from appraisal to deployment and operation of projects. It is also our way to make Ba Ria - Vung Tau a world-class travel destination," Mr Linh stressed.

At the conference, speakers and tourism experts frankly pointed out shortages of the local tourism industry and proposed recommendations for building a world-class tourism brand of Ba Ria – Vung Tau. Ms Ton Nu Thi Ninh, Chairperson of the HCM City Peace and Development Fund, said, after a massive expansion, the tourism sector of Ba Ria - Vung Tau province now needs to focus on developing selective high-class tourism, resort, ecological tourism, and thematic tourism in association with environmental protection. In order to successfully develop the high-end tourism segment, provincial leaders must conduct thorough studies on demand and specificity of this tourist line in order to have best approaches and supplies.

Mr Nguyen Thien Tuan, Chairman of Construction Development Investment Corporation (DIG), said, to develop tourism to new highs, Ba Ria - Vung Tau province needs to address macroeconomic challenges, especially the external transportation system. Currently, National Highway 51 - the main arterial route linking the Southeast of Vietnam to Ba Ria - Vung Tau, is overloaded. Making tourism more attractive to investors requires Ba Ria - Vung Tau province to develop a synchronous transport infrastructure system in order to woo investors.

My Chau