Sustainable Tourism Development: Challenges and Opportunities for the Mekong Delta Region

The tourism industry of Vietnam has maintained its position as the leading economic sector of the country in recent years. Along with that, tourism has assisted in preserving and promoting the values of natural and cultural resources, enhancing the image of Vietnam and reasserting its position in the process of growth and development. integration. As a result, a sustainable tourism strategy has been created. The Mekong Delta, one of the top seven tourist destinations of the country, will be a special highlight in the study of sustainable tourism. Through this article, the author has clarified the variables affecting the development, thereby, making recommendations to develop sustainable tourism in the region of the Mekong Delta.

As one of the seven major tourist destinations of the country, along with a long history, the Mekong Delta is proud of having rich natural and cultural tourism resources, as well as attractive tourism-related goods. Therefore, it is necessary and important not only to expand tourism but also to conserve and develop tourism resources, preserve the ecological environment, and ensure social justice for tourism development, especially sustainable development tourism. The research object of the article is the issues and practices related to sustainable tourism development in the Mekong Delta, with the research scope confined to the period of 2016-2021 in the Mekong Delta and surrounding areas.

Source: Baotintuc.vn

Current travel trends and popular types of tourism

Today, tourism is considered a necessity of socio-cultural life and an important economic sector in many countries. From a social point of view, tourism is a leisure activity that includes rest, entertainment, and meeting new people. This is a typical requirement and people tend to travel more as their standard of living increases.

Popular types of tourism today include:

Spiritual tourism: being a type of cultural tourism taking spiritual and cultural elements as the basis and the goal of satisfying people’s spiritual needs in spiritual life.
Visiting historical sites and scenic spots: being a traditional form of tourism in Vietnam because of the diversity and richness of history as well as natural elements.
Experiential tourism: being a form of tourism that focuses on the unique experience of each visitor. Whether traveling alone or in a group, travelers can learn many new things, and discover the local culture and cuisine.
Leisure travel: being suitable for those who are new to traveling for the purpose of relaxation and passionate about experiencing different types of entertainment, like excitement.
Resort tourism: being a type of tourism that combines fun activities, entertainment, health care, festivals, shopping and so on to help visitors have time to relax, entertain and take care of their health after a tiring time.
Ecotourism: being tourism associated with nature and indigenous culture, aiming to preserve culture, protect the environment, and spread the living culture of people in the region.
Cultural tourism: being a type of tourism that takes tourists to visit the monuments and cultural sites of a particular country or region.

Spiritual tourism - one of the most popular types of tourism today. (Image source: Baotuyenquang.com)

What is sustainable tourism?

The discussion of environmentally integrated tourism development has placed a lot of emphasis on sustainable tourism – tourism that minimizes costs and maximizes its benefits to the natural environment and local community, can be implemented in the long term without adversely affecting the resources on which it depends. It can be stated that sustainable tourism is environmentally responsible travel, visiting natural areas to enjoy and appreciate nature (and all its accompanying cultural features, which can be in the process) in the past or present in a way that recommends conservation, has a low impact on the environment and benefits the socio-economic interests of the local community (International Coalition for Conservation of Nature).

In summary, sustainable tourism has 03 main components, known as’three legs’ (Prescott-Allen, 1996), including sustainable tourism; being environmentally friendly, having a low impact on natural resources; and especially those areas in need of conservation – MPA (Marine Protected Area); specifically, minimizing impacts on the environment (animals and plants, habitat, resources, energy use and pollution, etc.) and trying to benefit the environment; being socially and culturally close, without harming the social or cultural structures of the community in which they are made; instead, respecting local culture and traditions, engaging stakeholders (individuals, communities, tour operators and government managers) in all stages of planning, development, and monitoring, educating stakeholders regarding their roles; economically contributing to the community and generating fair, stable income for the local community and as many other stakeholders as possible; bringing benefits to owners, employees, and those around them; not starting out simple and then collapsing quickly due to poor business performance.

Challenges of sustainable tourism development in the Mekong Delta

From the research and survey results, the author assesses that the potential for tourism development of the Mekong Delta is great, the tourism development here has created many benefits for the local community, but needs to acknowledge that the sustainable development of tourism in the Mekong Delta faces many challenges and has not brought into full play its potential and strengths completely.

Specifically, there are a variety of limitations in terms of unsynchronized transport infrastructure, the quality is not high enough to meet development needs despite having strengths in river, sea, and road routes. In fact, although the air route has been developed, it is not strong enough to meet the increasing tourism demand, and the transport infrastructure, ports, rest stops, information, and telecommunications systems are still not meeting the needs of passengers. The connection in the area by road is still very difficult; inland waterway transport has not been promoted, there is a lack of passenger ports by sea, and the means of transport are not capable of exploiting passengers.

Tourism services are underdeveloped, with most communities focusing solely on river- and garden-related tourism products. The region lacks a uniform system, with most activities occurring spontaneously between individuals or small businesses. Customers are often forced to buy goods, leading to unreasonable price increases for goods and services. Besides, the issue of environmental hygiene and food safety requires urgent attention and adjustment. In addition, there is a shortage of high-quality accommodation facilities to welcome international guests, as well as services related to other types of tourism.

The state management of tourism is being limited in addition to many shortcomings in the system of legal documents; a lack of human resources with specialized training in tourism. There is no coordination mechanism and a lack of initiative in exploiting specific tourist areas. The marketing and promotion of regional tourism products are still not much, it is necessary to promote tourism more, let guests know more about the strengths of the region, and at the same time need to mobilize funds to increase investment in promotion and advertising. To promote the destination, and develop the destination brand, it is possible to form a tourism development fund, a tourism promotion fund to create resources for developing specific local products.

Proposing solutions for sustainable tourism development in the Mekong Delta

Based on the analysis of the current tourism situation in the Mekong Delta, the author proposes solutions to promote sustainable tourism development in this area as follows:

First, the Government needs to focus on building and mobilizing investment resources to develop tourism infrastructure in the region, forming a tourism development investment fund to create resources for local tourism product development.

Second, strengthening linkages and cooperation between localities in the Mekong Delta region, between tour operators and tourism centers across the country, and promoting tourism among ASEAN countries is also a direction for tourism long-term development in the Mekong Delta.

Third, it needs attention and support from governmental and local management levels along with policies to encourage domestic and foreign businesses to develop tourism in combination with public service deployment and establishment of public services and production relation system.

Fourth, doing business, strengthening cooperation with foreign economic organizations to attract investment capital, and continuously developing tourism projects to create benefits for the development of the local tourism economy.

Fifth, developing and implementing a tourism human resource development program for each locality to match the tourism development orientation of the Mekong Delta region. Strengthening short-term training to meet the requirements of tourism human resource development, improving the quality, skills, and professionalism in services, and orienting long-term tourism development for each locality and suiting the requirements of international integration needs.

Sixth, the Government needs to promote the application of science and technology in administrative reform and business management, making the most of information technology applications in promoting tourism images, and at the same time preserving and promoting tourism activities, historical values, cultural heritages to letting visitors know more about tourism products and specific strengths of the region.

Author: Dr. Dinh Tien Minh – UEH College of Business, Nguyen Thi Thanh Thao, Tran Yen Quyen – UEH International Business students. This is an article in the series of articles spreading research and applied knowledge from UEH with the message "Research Contribution For All", UEH cordially invites readers to watch the next Knowledge Newsletter ECONOMY #63.

News, photos: Author, UEH Department of Marketing and Communication

Audio: Ngoc Qui