New products close to nature

According to the official dispatch No. 5168/UBND-HCTC dated October 18th, 2021, the People's Committee of Can Tho city has allowed the revival of tourism to adapt to the new situation. On this basis, many tourist agencies and tourism-related service businesses have prepared their reopening plans and programs. Mr. Nguyen Hong Hieu, Director of Hong Hieu Tourism Service Trading One Member Co., Ltd, said: “During the temporary hiatus in tourism, we have improved our products while preparing our new tour programs. In particular, for Can Tho, we have designed a day trip where visitors can get to interesting places and experience various activities such as cycling the road to a craft village, kayaking in small canals, practicing rice grain painting at Hieu's Cottage resort…”

Hieu's Cottage is a place to stay close to nature with many experiences of the local culture in the fruit-growing area of Phong Dien. This tourist site began welcoming visitors on October 20th, as soon as the city of Can Tho authorized the return of tourist activities. Currently, a golf course is being built on a total area of 3,000 m2 in the area of this same tourist resort. “This is with the aim of popularizing golf among children and beginners by helping them better understand the sport and to create a new tourism product in Can Tho,” added Mr. Nguyen Hong Hieu.

In the current context, green tourism close to nature, medical tourism, leisure tourism, community-based tourism, or agricultural tourism are preferred. Seizing this trend, Hai Au Tourist has also caught up. Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Suong, Deputy Director of Hai Au Tourist and Project Manager of Bao Gia Farm Camping, said: "edutourism (educational tourism) and farming education (agricultural experience combined with education). As for edutourism, we are closely monitoring the training programs of the schools. In this way, most of our programs are temporarily postponed but not canceled. Therefore, during the temporary suspension of tourism activities, we had time to improve our products, to create new ones. In particular, we launched a series of specific academic products such as the MWY project (Me-You-World) - the series of talk shows on education, vocational guidance, tourism, and agriculture; trainings on the value of life for young people called “Leadership for teens”; creative craft workshops for children aged 3 to 5; and the series of thematic programs “Happy School - Project 3C”. At the same time, together with the tourist resort “Bao Gia Trang Vien - The Green Resort”, we will create high-quality complete products with therapy, physical and mental health care for the elderly, families, and children. These are all products that Hai Au Tourist will deploy by the end of 2021.”

For its part, the Bao Gia Farm Camping (an experiential education model based on high-tech organic farming) will also be in operation from November, reopening its doors to welcome visitors again with expired vouchers until at the end of 2022.

As for the community-based tourism of Son islet, it plans to welcome visitors as soon as the city allows tourism to resume. In the meantime, members are maintaining their gardens and landscapes and perfecting the “Con Son hoi do” (Con Son yesteryear) product to welcome visitors around mid-November. “Con Son hoi do” is a series of experiential activities to reconstruct the old way of life. It is built according to the 3N criterion (listening, seeing, and tasting). Concretely: visitors can listen to locals talk about their way of raising and preserving rare fish, cultivating and preserving local plant varieties; see the rustic landscape with fruit orchards and colorful flower gardens, and finally taste the culinary products made from fruits and the popular dishes of the Son islet.

For safe tourist activities

Mr. Nguyen Hong Hieu said, “We are ready to welcome visitors in accordance with the pandemic prevention and control required by the Ministry of Health and municipal authorities. Concretely, our employees are vaccinated with at least one dose of vaccine and are tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 every 3 working days. As for tourists, adults must be vaccinated at least one dose of vaccine, children under 18 must have a negative test certificate for SARS-CoV-2 before we can accept their reservations and stay at Hieu's cottage. We apply the 5K message (mask, disinfection, keep distance, no gathering, declaration of health) for employees and tourists; in particular the disinfection of surfaces on means of transport, visiting areas, before and after taking charge of visitors.

Meanwhile, residents of Son Islet have made plans to both ensure security and effectively exploit tourism. Ms. Phan Kim Ngan, Owner of Cong Minh Garden, Representative of the Board of Directors of Son Islet Community-based Tourism Club, said, “We plan to accommodate a maximum of 15 tour groups per day. Moreover, each group must not exceed 30 people and must reserve in advance”. The islet of Son is in the middle of the Hau River, so the management of round trips by tourists is also under local control. Therefore, visitors are expected to adhere to the 5K message, city safety regulations, pandemic prevention and control, and local tourist guidelines for welcoming visitors. Hai Au Tourist will also organize activities for small groups of tourists, in accordance with the guidelines of Municipal Tourism. Fully vaccinated visitors will make medical declarations on arrival and be tested for COVID-19 before and after travel ...

However, tourism activities face many difficulties. Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Suong said: “Regulations are not uniform from one locality to another, so the implementation of activities faces many obstacles, especially the reception and movement of visitors. Therefore, we are proposing a common plan. On the other hand, localities need to promote new products more”. Mr. Nguyen Hong Hieu also shared, “We need concrete and unified guidelines between places and partners to carry out the activities. On the other hand, testing for COVID-19 regularly is expensive, in addition to medical supplies for pandemic prevention and control. Currently, we are still adapting to ensure safety as a top priority, but we need supportive policies that accompany tourism businesses in this time”.

A guest room at Hieu’s Cottage.

To these questions, Mr. Nguyen Minh Tuan, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Can Tho city, said: “Municipal Tourism is coordinating with the Municipal Health Service and relevant sectors to advise the Municipal People's Committee to promulgate a set of criteria for evaluating the level of security in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic for the operation of accommodation establishments. At the same time, we coordinate with the Tourism Association of the city to develop a plan to stimulate tourism demand and to guarantee the double objective namely to prevent and control the pandemic while restoring and developing the economy and society. We are also developing guidelines for tourism businesses to use, based on safety as a priority. Faced with the difficulties of tourism businesses, local tourism continues to implement support programs in accordance with Government Resolution No. 68/NQ-CP, Decision No. 23/2021/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister, and Resolution No. 52/NQ -HDND of the Can Tho Municipal People's Council, to help tourism businesses overcome difficulties and recover quickly.”

Can Tho Municipal Tourism requests policy to participate in VITM - Hanoi International Tourism Fair 2021, with the aim of promoting publicity and creating conditions for businesses to link circuits, routes, and expand markets. Can Tho Tourism is also promoting digital transformation, increasing the application of information technologies in the following areas: advising on the organization of online promotional fairs; promoting and improving the quality of the canthotourism.vn tourist portal, a smart travel application on mobile devices. Regarding the arrangements for welcoming guests, the localities rely on the instructions of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and related sectors, to have the appropriate instructions for the tourist operating units of the city, as well as the interprovincial connections.

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Although the COVID-19 pandemic is under control, there are many potential risks, so Can Tho Tourism is always careful in its plans and activities. The city is working to increase the vaccination rate for residents and tourism staff to ensure safety in tourist activities during the recovery. Many tourist units are still considering the situation and are awaiting specific instructions from the tourism sector to set up restart programs. Thus, tourist activities in Can Tho will be relaunched in November at the earliest.