Tourism representatives of Can Tho City, and Kien Giang and Lam Dong provinces agreed at a recent meeting in Can Tho City that while each of the localities had their own strengths, these can be multiplied through effective joint action.

Diep Hoang Tung, Deputy Director of the Golf Viet Nam JSC in Can Tho, noted that the traditional Vietnamese adage “buon co ban, ban co phuong” (for trading friends are needed, for selling a community is needed) applied not only to business activities in general, but also to tourism services in particular.

Co-operation between the three provinces would support the creation of tourism products carrying characteristics particular to each province, avoiding the current phenomenon of different provinces coming up with identical products, Tung said.

Acting together would have the added advantage of regular prices, not to mention other tourism-related policies that would make visitors more comfortable with travelling in the region, he added.

Tung said that to establish such co-operative ties, it was necessary to draw up a master tourism development programme for the three provinces.

Le Van Men, Deputy Director of the Can Tho Trade and Investment Promotion Centre, said that inter-provincial co-operative ties were a strategic development policy that would promote sustainable development of Vietnam’s tourism industry.

It would generate more resources to promote tourism and better exploit the advantages and potentials of each locality to create a diverse range of products that can attract both domestic and foreign tourists, he said. It would also help develop the basic elements needed for tourism development – natural and human resources, infrastructure, and technology, Men said.

Even as a common tourism development plan was being discussed, several tourism promotion co-operation documents were signed at the meeting by travel agencies and tour operators. Operators also signed 14 contracts to open “One way – Three Destinations” tours for both domestic and foreign tourists.