New development momentum of Ho Chi Minh City
In recent years, Ho Chi Minh City has strongly developed in urban economy, services and industry, but the exploitation of marine economic potential is still not commensurate. The city's tourism ecosystem is currently lacking large-scale destinations that can integrate resorts, entertainment and services, and at the same time, extend the length of stay of tourists.
In that context, developing Can Gio in the direction of forming a modern tourism, service and marine economy complex is considered a necessary direction, contributing to supplementing and completing the development structure of Ho Chi Minh City in the new period.
At the conference "Can Gio - New Growth Pole of Ho Chi Minh City" held on the morning of May 12, Mr. Pham Huy Binh - Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism assessed that Can Gio is an area that owns a mangrove ecosystem recognized by UNESCO as a World Biosphere Reserve. At the same time, this place has advantages in the sea, estuary and typical ecological space that not many large cities today can still preserve.
This is not only a precious natural resource but also a distinct advantage for Ho Chi Minh City to form new development drivers in the future.
In particular, when the strategic infrastructure system gradually forms from ring roads, expressways, inter-regional connections to Long Thanh International Airport and sea-facing traffic corridors, Can Gio will become an important link in the city's new economic, tourism and logistics network.
The development of Can Gio will contribute to completing the city's tourism structure towards one destination - a multi-ecosystème of experiences, better meeting the increasingly diverse needs of domestic and international tourists" - Mr. Binh emphasized.
Potential of international marine eco-tourism megacity
Ms. Huynh Phan Phuong Hoang - Vice Chairwoman of the Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Association, Deputy General Director of Vietravel Company, said that the reality in Ho Chi Minh City shows that the current urban tourism model, mainly based on shopping and visiting heritage sites in the central area, has gradually reached its limit. Tourists come, spend and leave quickly.
The city is lacking a "soul" of resort, lacking entertainment space and large-scale complexes strong enough to retain long-term tourists. This is the problem that Ho Chi Minh City needs to solve.
As the central land fund is increasingly limited and investment costs are increasing, the city lacks space to develop large-scale resort-entertainment complexes. Can Gio with its large coastal land fund, unique ecosystem and synchronous planning capacity from the beginning, can become a new development pole.
This will help Ho Chi Minh City not only stop at the role of a commercial and service center, but gradually develop according to a multi-center model. In which, Can Gio plays an extremely growth role in urban economy, resort economy, eco-tourism, international entertainment and night economy.
To realize the Can Gio eco-tourism model, Ms. Phuong Hoang emphasized the need to focus on 5 main pillars: forming large-scale resort-entertainment complexes integrating accommodation, casinos and high-class services; maximizing the potential of marine tourism; strongly developing MICE tourism; building Can Gio into a leading regional and international entertainment destination.
According to Dr. Tran Quang Thang - Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Institute for Economic and Management Research, Can Gio has the potential to become an international-class marine eco-tourism megacity if it has strong connecting infrastructure, unique tourism products, large-scale resort-entertainment complexes and a sufficiently flexible development mechanism...
In the long term, Can Gio's strategic vision is not to become a "new Dubai" or "new Las Vegas", but to build a separate development model - where the mangrove ecosystem, sea and Southern culture become the foundation for a sustainable tourism ecosystem.
