Exploiting heritage to create unique tourism products
The strategy for developing cultural industries to 2030, with a vision to 2045, was developed quite early by Ca Mau Provincial People's Committee. This is a direction to exploit cultural, landscape, artistic, and creative values to create more resources for growth.
By 2030, Ca Mau aims to welcome more than 11.5 million visitors, with total tourism revenue of about 14,700 billion VND. In 2045, cultural industries are oriented to contribute about 9% of the province's GRDP.
Six areas identified as having priority potential include cultural tourism, performing arts, handicrafts, advertising, software and entertainment games, and cinema.
In which, cultural and ecological tourism is identified as the core field to connect other values. Ca Mau has a system of relics, scenic spots, typical ecological spaces and cultural values that have the potential to develop into products.
Southern amateur music is oriented to become a unique tourism product. The province sets a target to organize at least 3 annual competitions, festivals, cultural and artistic festivals and 4 provincial-level events; aiming to become one of the Cai Luong stage art centers of the region by 2045.
Cultural brands such as Bac Ba Phi, Cong Tu Bac Lieu, Dat Mui, U Minh Ha... are particularly noticed to create products with identity to increase the attractiveness of the destination.
Mr. Mai Hoang Viet, Director of Cong Tu Bac Lieu Tourism Service Joint Stock Company, said that the value of the place name and brand of Cong Tu Bac Lieu still has a lot of room to exploit, especially in tourism links between localities.
According to Mr. Viet, connecting cultural stories with services, experiences and traditions can create more unique products instead of just stopping at sightseeing.
Cinema is also included in Ca Mau's plan with the goal of attracting an average of 1-2 film crews, documentaries or tourism promotion films to the locality each year. Places chosen as locations can continue to develop into destinations, creating more connections between cinema and tourism.
Completed transportation infrastructure expands tourism space
For Ca Mau, transportation is considered an important factor in expanding tourism space, bringing tourists to areas far from the center.
The Ca Mau - Dat Mui expressway, expected to be completed after 2028, is expected to shorten travel time, creating conditions for service, resort, and eco-tourism projects to continue to develop.
Mr. Nguyen Van Hon, Director of Hoang Hon Tourist Area in Dat Mui, said that when traffic is favorable, the opportunity to attract investors will be wider, but local community tourism facilities also need to be facilitated to participate more deeply in the product chain.
When the highway reaches Dat Mui, there will definitely be many large investors returning. Local ecotourism workers like us want to contribute a part to the experiential ecotourism segment, bringing the most authentic local values to tourists," Mr. Hon shared.
Along with infrastructure, Ca Mau sets requirements for human resource development, attracting social capital, expanding markets, and protecting intellectual property rights.
Ca Mau orients the digitization of heritage, cultural and artistic documents; building a database on cultural industry; connecting production, promotion, and distribution of products on digital platforms to expand domestic and foreign markets.
From the existing values, the problem posed for Ca Mau is not only preservation but also creating products and services that can be sold on the market. When culture is connected with tourism, technology and social resources, indigenous values have more opportunities to become economic values.
