An Giang turns tourism into cutting-edge sector

An Giang boasts plentiful natural features, from mountain ranges to meandering rivers

An Giang, which shares a border with Cambodia to the north-west, has a marvelous mixed plain and mountainous landscape with the strong presence of historical and cultural relics, as well as nationally recognised attractions.

According to a recent report from An Giang People’s Committee, in the first nine months this year, the province greeted more than 8.3 million visitor arrivals, generating VND4.7 trillion ($204.3 million) in local tourism revenue. The growing number of tourists has helped An Giang take the lead in the delta by virtue of the province’s multitude of natural attractions.

However, according to Nguyen Khanh Hiep, director of An Giang Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism – visitor stay time and average spending levels are still low in the province due to the presence of limited suitable accommodation, despite the high volume of tourists. To address the bottleneck, the province has scaled up efforts in recent years into promoting investment into tourism services development.

Businesses are welcome to invest in building quality restaurants and hotels, as well as entertainment complexes and resorts. The province also pays regard to restoring existing spiritual tourism sites in order to serve visitors more effectively. It has also presented incentive policies to investors for relevant development.

An Giang’s tourism sector has made ceaseless efforts to improve service quality and expand the tourism infrastructure system, as well as to diversify tour offerings combined with caring for the environment.

Significantly, due investment has been put into gradually perfecting the roads leading to diverse tourism sites such as provincial route 943 heading towards Thoai Son district, or Route 941 to Tri Ton district. These efforts have helped An Giang attract more large-scale projects from businesses inside and outside the province.

They include the Tra Su eco-resort project in Tinh Bien district, valued at VND748 billion ($32.5 million) from An Giang Tourism JSC; Nui Sam Resort project in Chau Doc city, located over 9.5 hectares of space and valued at VND486 billion ($21.1 million) from MGA Ltd.; and the Chau Doc city tourism and trade services centre project, at nearly 88ha and valued at VND2.41 trillion ($104.7 million) by Hai Den Ltd., to name but a few.

Furthermore, local leading players such as FLC Group, T&T Group, and Phu Cuong Group are in the legal setup phase to land projects on tourism services in the province, including building a five-star hotel complex, Long Xuyen shophouse and trade centre complex, and more besides. An Giang already accommodates appealing tourism attractions with distinct ecosystems, such as the mysterious That Son mountain range and romantic waterway scenes.

Also proving a great charm for visitors are the Nui Sam national tourism attraction, Nui Cam complex, and the Tra Su indigo forest reserve.

To ensure the most is made of these outstanding features, and to transform the tourism sector’s fortunes in the province, An Giang will continue improving the local transport infrastructure, helping to connect the four major tourism sites of Chau Doc, Long Xuyen, Nui Cam, and Oc Eo. It will also revise the planning schemes of major tourism sites to provide the best conditions for investors. Simultaneously, businesses in the province will receive greater support to approach incentive policies for local tourism development.