Published:  16:47 Monday - April 15, 2013

Le Van Hung, acting director of the Southern office of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said on April 12 that the Mekong Delta is one of seven key regions in the country’s most popular tourism destination strategies for 2020 with vision till 2030

Tourists enjoy catchign fish in a river in Mekong delta (Photo: SGGP) 

However, the region is short of workers and skilled personnel. This is causing the region to lag behind other regions in the country. Presently, the region has only one training facility that supplies trained personnel for the tourism sector.

Some divisions in Can Tho and An Giang Universities also contribute in some small measure. In 2012, around 23,500 people working in the tourism sector in 13 provinces in the Mekong Delta helped serve 18 percent of the demand of 128,000 laborers for the sector. Forecasts predict the region will need around 207,000 trained personnel by 2020.

Dr. Vu Khac Chuong, headmaster of Saigon College of Art, Culture and Tourism, said the region needs around 30,000 laborers of intermediate level and around 20,000 people with higher education each year. According to the Vietnam Tourism Association, in 2012, the Mekong Delta welcomed 1.6 million international and domestic tourists, bringing in revenues upto VND4,344 billion (US$2,085).

However, Hung said this figure is not correct as the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, which receives the maximum number of tourists in the region, received 170,000 international holidaymakers in 2012, while An Giang Province received around four million tourists.

Source: saigon-gpdaily