The Mekong Delta needs to protect its natural ecosystem as it is crucial for sustainable tourism development, experts said at a seminar in Can Tho City on April 20.
On the sidelines of the international seminar on a vision of a Mekong Delta which is modern, sustainable and adaptive to climate change, Nguyen Huu Thien, an ecological expert, said that like other areas, the Mekong Delta depends on its landscapes, culture and history to develop tourism.
Climate change and other environmental problems have threatened land and water resources in the delta, which will in turn affect waterway tourism. In addition, coastal forests have been eroded by landslides and coral reefs have been put in peril by garbage.
Besides agriculture and fishing, the tourism sector can help raise incomes of local communities and reduce the overexploitation of land and water resources.
The tourism sector should be developed in a sustainable manner to ensure the long-term development of the delta, Thien said.
The government has issued Resolution 120 on the Mekong Delta’s sustainable development, which is the strong foundation for the delta’s tourism sector to grow.
At the seminar, Christopher Lewis Malone, managing director of Boston Consulting Group in Vietnam, the consultant of a project to develop tourism in the Mekong Delta in times of climate change, said the delta should develop resorts along rivers, safari parks and ecological tourism services.
