New tourism treasure
After the arrangement of administrative units, Can Tho City has 124 relics recognized, ranked, and recognized as cultural heritages, of which 108 relics have been ranked; 16 intangible cultural heritages are recognized in the list of national intangible cultural heritages. The city has identified these cultural values as contributing significantly to creating unique tourism products, with differences between regions and localities.
According to author and cultural researcher of the South Nham Hung, Can Tho City currently possesses natural ecological diversity, from the freshwater ecological zone of Hau River garden, to the brackish water ecological zone of Cu Lao Dung, Tran De and even the coastal ecological zone of Vinh Chau. This is accompanied by the richness of cultural life, especially national culture and spiritual culture with the clear convergence of the three ethnic groups Kinh, Khmer, and Hoa.
From the perspective of a travel agency, Ms. Luong Thi Quynh - Deputy Director of Vietravel Can Tho branch - said that after the merger, the tourism market and customer segment will be expanded, creating conditions for the development of joint products.
The inland market of the West is suitable for exploiting cultural and historical tourism and eco-tourism. We have actively integrated cultural, culinary and ecological experiential activities into tourism products. In addition to familiar destinations such as Cai Rang Floating Market, Con Son, Hung Temple, the company is expanding the exploitation of typical indigenous cultures such as Khmer culture, Chinese pagodas, festivals and traditional craft villages to diversify options for tourists" - Ms. Quynh said.
Changing the mindset of riding horses to see flowers
Despite its great potential, Can Tho is facing significant challenges in effectively connecting destinations, tours, and routes between newly merged areas into a complete tourism value chain.
Regarding this issue, author Nham Hung warned about traveling in a " horse riding to see flowers" path, lacking depth.
To create outstanding attraction, Can Tho tourism needs to be linked and connected into a unique tour and route, where river products must express their diversity through the harmonious combination of natural landscape (river, orchard, fruit tree), indigenous life (residents, craft villages) and cultural relics (tombs, communal houses) - composer Nham Hung said.
In particular, the city needs to pay attention to exploiting intangible cultural values such as the Song Tai Tu, Can Tho Festival of the Kinh people, along with the Rom Vong dance and Aday singing of the Khmer people. This combination will help Can Tho tourism products have the characteristics of ethnic groups. The goal is to how in a service (river road or road), all these factors are harmoniously connected and linked into a tour, a route that is both convenient and attractive to tourists.
