HCM City (VNS/VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City and 13 cities and provinces in the MekongDelta will step up efforts to foster tourism cooperation in the next fiveyears, local authorities have said.

Thetourism cooperation programme between HCM City and the Mekong Delta signedlast year outlined collaboration in five areas: State management intourism, development of new products, marketing and promotion activities,training of human resources, and investment in tourism.

Thecooperation had resulted in the forming of a regional tourism brand for HCMCity and the Mekong Delta, said Phan Thi Thang, Vice Chairwoman of the HCM CityPeople’s Committee.

Marketingand communications activities were needed to promote the regional tourismbrand and new inter-regional travel products, Thang said at a meetingheld in Dong Thap province last week.

Asinternational travel had been disrupted due to the pandemic, she said itwas vital to boost domestic travel to make up for some of the shortfall intourism revenue.

Domestictravel, which accounted for nearly 60 percent of the total number ofvisitors to HCM City in 2019, remains the main source market of MekongDelta tourism.

Thetourism industry has been hit hard by the pandemic, with a sharp plummet intourist arrivals and tourism revenue. 

Thenumber of tourist arrivals to HCM City dropped by 66.6 percent to more than 17million, including 1.3 million international tourists, a year-on-year declineof 84.8 percent.

Tourism revenuein HCM City was estimated at 84.5 trillion VND (3.65 billion USD) last year, ayear-on-year decrease of 39.6 percent.

TheMekong Delta saw a 38 percent decrease in the number of visitors and a 48 percentfall in tourism revenue last year.

Small-and medium-sized enterprises, which account for 98 percent of businesses in thetourism industry, have been dramatically affected by the pandemic, withmany of them temporarily shutting down or shifting to other businesses.

NguyenThi Thanh Huong, deputy head of the Vietnam National Tourism Administration,said the initiative to form tourism cooperation and linkages between HCM Cityand 13 cities and provinces in the Mekong Delta would create opportunities forenterprises in the tourism industry to develop.

Theinitiative would also help realise the tourism potential of eachlocality and boost investment in tourism, she said.

Underthe agreement, three new inter-regional travel products and 50 stimulus traveltours with discounted prices have been launched from HCM City to localities inthe Mekong Delta./.