Ba Ria-Vung Tau has seized on the worldwide trend toward MICE tourism, which combines regular tourism services with event organization skills and specialized infrastructure and personnel.
In Ba Ria-Vung Tau MICE earns a large share of local tourism revenue. Major foreign-funded MICE projects are the Wonderful World Theme Park, the Saigon Atlantis Tourism Complex, the Skybridge Dragon Sea Tourism Exhibition Center, the Ho Tram Strip complex, the Pullman Hotel, the Malibu Hotel, the Marina Bay resort and spa, and Hera Palace, which targets high-end customers.
 The Grand Ho Tram Strip in Ba Ria-Vung Tau (dantri.com.vn) |
Le Quoc Khanh, Deputy Chairman of the Ba Ria-Vung Tau provincial People’s Committee, told us, “Ba Ria-Vung Tau has become an attractive destination for visitors in and outside Vietnam. The province now has numerous high quality tourism projects in operation, which have helped to boost our tourism revenue. The number of tourist arrivals to Ba Ria-Vung Tau grows 12% annually. We have improved our infrastructure, service quality, and environment in an effort to achieve sustainable economic growth.”
Severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the local tourism sector is attempting to restructure, improve service quality, and attract investors who are able to exploit the potential and create major breakthroughs for Ba Ria-Vung Tau tourism.
Ba Ria-Vung Tau is making MICE tourism a priority, according to Nguyen Hong Linh, Secretary of the provincial Party Committee. He urged the province to identify its tourism highlights and encourage investment in tourism complexes, luxurious hotels and resorts, and human resource training to boost MICE tourism.
“Ba Ria-Vung Tau needs projects investing in tourism. But we will not green light every investor that submits a proposal, but will weigh each proposal carefully and choose the best ideas and best projects,” according to Linh.
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 The finale of Miss Vietnam 2020 is held in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province.
(Photo: thanhnien.vn)
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Singapore and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates are the leaders of MICE tourism and investment attraction. Experts believe that Ba Ria-Vung Tau province has a strong potential for MICE tourism. Convenient transportation allows visitors to travel the 120 kilometres from Ho Chi Minh City to Ba Ria-Vung Tau province for business events combined with a beach vacation in just a couple hours. Coordinated infrastructure makes Ba Ria-Vung Tau capable of hosting large regional and global diplomatic and cultural events. It recently hosted the Annual Meeting of Vietnam’s cities, the Vietnam Film Festival, the finale of Miss Vietnam 2020, and the International Kite Festival.
Every country and every locality needs a tourism product that distinguishes it from the crowd. For Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, that is quite obviously MICE.