With the goal of welcoming 3.2 million tourists in 2024 and striving for revenue of 2,500 billion VND, Ninh Thuan has cooperated with many provinces and cities to develop specific tours, programmes and routes.
The advantage of the “miniature desert”
Ninh Thuan has a 105 km long coastline and high mountain ranges facing the East Sea/South China Sea, creating blue sea, white sand, and golden sunshine such as Ninh Chu, Binh Tien and Ca Na beaches, and Nam Cuong and Mui Dinh sand dunes like endless silk strips. In addition, Vinh Hy Bay, which was recognised by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as a national scenic relic site, was assessed as one of the four most beautiful bays in Vietnam (along with Ha Long Bay in Quang Ninh Province, Lan Ha Bay in Hai Phong City and Lang Co Bay in Thua Thien Hue Province). Nui Chua National Park, which was recognised by the UNESCO as a World Biosphere Reserve, and Phuoc Binh National Park have unique ecosystems conserving hundreds of rare species of animals, plants, and sea turtles.
Ninh Thuan is also famous for different ethnic groups with diverse cultural activities such as the annual Kate Festival associated with the relatively intact Cham tower architecture; beautiful customs such as (farewell to the dead) ceremony, whale worshipping festival, boat race and basket shaking ritual preserve many unique cultural features. Ninh Thuan is one of the few most ideal destinations for kite surfing in the world with wind speeds of 25 nautical miles per hour. With a terrain mainly of sand dunes and high mountains stretching out to the sea, the locality is also a paradise for adventure sports experiences including racing on sand dunes, paragliding, and trekking.
Director of Ninh Thuan Provincial Department of Planning and Investment Le Kim Hoang said many large-scale and high-class projects (such as Nui Chua South Eco-tourism Area, Long Thuan Tourist Area, TTC Resort Premium-Ninh Thuan) have been put into operation very effectively. The province has also carried out the planning of the National Tourist Area until 2045 associated with distinct advantages.
With the set strategy, Ninh Thuan has successfully organised tourism promotion conferences and signed tourism development programmes with many other localities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh. As a result, the province has introduced many new tourism products such as the development of kite surfing in the coastal area of Ninh Hai District; visiting Nam Cuong and Mui Dinh sand dunes in Thuan Nam District; high-tech agricultural tourism in vineyards, apple orchards, and orchid farms; My Nghiep lotus village in Ninh Phuoc District; community-based tourism in Hon Thien mural village, Nui Chua Lang Me community eco-tourism area, Thanh Son sheep hill, in Ninh Hai District, and Nara Binh Tien golf course. They have been chosen as favourite destinations by international tourists, and highly appreciated by the domestic media and travel agencies. The province has 212 tourist accommodation establishments with 4,686 rooms. As of April 2024, out of 56 tourism projects, with a total registered capital of more than VND 52,469 billion, 23 have been put into operation, 20 were under construction, and 13 were in the process of completing investment procedures.
Attracting tourists with new products
According to Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Long Bien, with differences such as exploring and having fun with sand and salt and semi-wild hunting, many unique community-based tourism products have become famous brands, creating stable income for many households in some villages.
Nguyen Dinh Tri in Nhon Son Commune, Ninh Son District, applied modern technology to grow 2,500m2 of black finger grapes NH04-102, pink grapes NH01-152, and peony grapes NH01-212 in greenhouse, creating large and beautiful bunches of ripe fruits. His vineyard has created a "fever" on social networks, attracting a large number of visitors to experience the high-tech agricultural model combined with tourism.
Hon Do beach in Thanh Hai Commune, Ninh Hai District, has a climate at moderate temperature. Coming here, visitors can watch the sunset, camp overnight, and admire the beautiful sunrise in the morning. Hoang Thi Quyen, a tourist from Nghe An Province, shared: “Hon Do Beach still retains its pristine beauty with cool blue sea water. Visitors can experience diving to see corals under the sea or admire fossilized coral reefs on land with a variety of beautiful shapes and colours. Visitors can set up tents in the middle of a large pine forest or among coral reefs to enjoy the fresh air, cool sea breeze and fresh seafood. I was very impressed with the unique tourism products of Ninh Thuan”.
The wild and unique sand dunes of hundreds of hectares in Son Hai coastal village of Thuan Nam District has attracted hundreds of thousands of tourists to admire the sand drifting in the wind like giant silk ribbons every year. Here, visitors can also swim in the sea, visit the lighthouse built in 1904 on the slope of a high mountain in Dinh Cape, enjoy fresh seafood and grilled lamb. They are also served by service teams to cross the vast sand dunes, then take souvenir photos with flocks of sheep grazing on the mountain.
Many years ago, the Ra Glai and Chu Ru people in Ninh Son and Bac Ai Districts did not know what community-based tourism was. Now the locals have been trained in basic skills and the eco-cultural-historical tourism form has been becoming more and more popular. They know how to guide tourists to experience and explore new things in the buffer zone of Phuoc Binh National Park, admire the wild mountains and hills and the unique scenery, and observe the rare F1 hybrid gaur herd.
Phuoc Binh Commune has 40 households that has taken advantage of vacant land in the orchard to build 50 traditional houses on stilt and intercrop green-skin pomelos with other varieties of trees such as rambutan and durian, to diversify the orchard of special fruit trees to serve tourists.
Director of Ninh Thuan Provincial Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion Centre Truong Van Tien said in 2024, the agency has proposed 10 groups of tasks and solutions, 15 key and breakthrough tasks, and 64 main and regular tasks, to implement the role of supporting and promoting investment, trade and tourism, with the spirit of innovative thinking, dynamism, creativity, and digital transformation in tourism promotion activities on digital platform applications, towards promoting images to businesses, domestic tourists and international tourist markets.
Recently, the centre has organised a meeting with tourism enterprises in Ninh Thuan and a Famtrip delegation with 20 members who are leaders of the Tourism Association and representatives of travel agencies in Gwangju City and the Jeju City Sea Sports and Recreation Association (the Republic of Korea) to survey typical tourist destinations, unique natural and cultural heritages of Ninh Thuan province.
The Ninh Thuan province planning for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050, which has been approved by the Prime Minister, identified five development pillars, of which renewable energy and tourism are two of the province's economic spearheads.
