Can Tho (VNA) – Authorities of Can Tho gathered onMarch 9 to discuss measures to boost local tourism, especially Cai RangFloating Market which will be built into a strong tourism brand of the MekongDelta city.

Director of the municipal Department of Culture,Sports and Tourism Tran Viet Phuong said to turn tourism into a spearheadsector of the city by 2020, local departments and sectors need to coordinatestrongly to take synchronous solutions.

While the transport department should swiftlycomplete transport facilities linking with key tourism sites, the healthdepartment needs to keep a close watch on popular tourism sites to preventdisease transmission and ensure food safety. The Department of Industry andTrade must strictly manage shops at tourism sites to ensure that goods are soldaccording to listed prices, he said.

Vice Chairman of the municipal People’sCommittee Le Van Tam asked departments and sectors to assist travel companiesin creating new tourism products, which is especially important when manyprovinces have similar products that are not typical for their localities.

Many provinces in the Mekong Delta also havefloating markets, and that’s why Cai Rang must be imbued with particularfeatures of Can Tho. It is necessary to develop rest areas, homestay servicesand shops of local delicacies so as to keep tourists in the city for many days.

[Video: Cai Rang floating market in Can Tho city]

Authorities also need to support and encouragethe private sector to create new tourism products, Tam added.

He said promoting tourism via online channelslike social networks should be considered a “fashionable step” as it is able toaccess a big number of travellers at low costs. Meanwhile, more attention alsoneeds to be paid to improving foreign language skills of organisations andpersons working in the tourism industry.

Can Tho welcomed an estimated 1.8 milliontourists and earned 515 billion VND (22.66 million USD) in tourism revenue inthe first two months of 2018, up 19 percent and 28 percent from a year earlierrespectively, according to the municipal Department of Culture, Sports andTourism.

In 2017, it enjoyed strong growth in tourism dueto a series of international political and cultural events and traditionalfestivals.

The number of tourist arrivals surged 40 percentto 7.5 million, while tourism revenue rose 61 percent to 2.9 trillion VND(127.6 million USD).-VNA