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VietNamNet Bridge – HCM City’s residents, travel firms and local authorities all have agreed that it is necessary to develop waterway tourism. However, they still do not know what and how to develop.
New tour opened
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Painter Ho Huu Thu, Chair of the Ham Long Craftsmen’s Joint Stock Company, said that the craftsmen’s village, located humbly on the Saigon riverbank and not well known, has welcomed many tourists just seven months after the HCM City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism decided to develop waterway tourism. For the last 10 years, the who painters have gathered in this quiet and charming landscape, set up a village to invite people to come here to visit original models in the village exhibit the painting style of southern painters. Now they feel satisfied that their vision is being realized.
The only thing Thu is worried about is that only 1/5 of the works in the village have been fulfilled and the village still is not as perfect as hoped.
Being one of the first visitors to the craftsmen’s village, Ly Ngoc Bach, General Director of Cuong Phat Company said that it is a wonderful idea to present opportunities for tourists to travel on the river and visit such a beautiful village. “The landscapes here are wonderful and travelers also have the opportunity to admire the paintings of famous painters.
Bach went on to say that the Ham Long craftsmen’s village is relatively large, and if tours can be well organized to allo travelers to admire, behold and relax at the same time, they will not only spend a morning or afternoon here, but the whole day.
Bach also thinks that only one destination for waterway tourism is too little, and that it is necessary to develop more tourism sites along the river.
A ship but no wharf
The thing that may surprise many people is that such a big scale tour still has many problems. According to An Son Lam, Chair of Dong Duong Sailing Ship Company, T\gthe biggest problem is that there is still no wharf for tourists to go ashore. Lam said he is not satisfied when servicemen have to lift and carry travelers in their arms ashore. The current ship is a medium sized ship that can contain only 50 travelers, but there is still no room for it to dock. Larger vessels would have even more difficulties. In general, Lam said, the basic conditions of a tourism wharf are still not good. Lam fears that the lack of the basic conditions will discourage tourists and hinder the development of waterway tourism.
Phan Xuan Anh, who spent time inviting people to take the tour, said he was so happy when the tour caught the attention of Du Ngoan Viet, APEX, Ben Thanh Tourism and Ngoc Phong Enterprise. Anh said that though it takes people only 15 minutes to driver cars from the center of the city to the Ham Long village, tourists would prefer traveling on river because they have the opportunity to enjoy beautiful landscapes on the riverbank.
Anh said that if a wharf can be built, the waterway tour will be able to attract more tourists and enterprises will also be ready to build more ships.
Anh has also cited that another inconveniences is that foreigners cannot pay by credit cards when they want to purchase paintings in the village. He has also suggested that there are many things that the craftsmen in the village can do to attract more tourists. For example, painters can open calligraphy classes to, or invite tourists to have lunches with painters’ families. In summer, travel firms can bring boys and girls to the village to stay and learn to paint.
Source: Saigon tiep thi
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