Waterway tourism has a lot of potential in HCM City but poor infrastructure has limited development (Photo: bizlive.vn)HCMCity (VNA) – The current weak infrastructure system is hindering thedevelopment of domestic waterway tourism in Ho Chi Minh City.
From the beginning of the year, owners of six floating restaurants in the NhaRong Wharf (Dragon Wharf) in district 4 were told by the new owner of the port,the Ngoc Vien Dong Urban Investment and Development Ltd. Co, that they are notallowed to dock there anymore.
The Ngoc Vien Dong Urban Investment and Development Ltd. Co will build acomplex facility in Hiep Phuoc port and in return, it has the right to managethe Nha Rong Wharf.
The company only agrees to rent 300m of its wharf for receiving internationalguests and does not allow tourism boats and floating restaurants to dock there.
The Thuyen buom Dong Duong (Indochina Sailboat) Ltd. Co has 15 years ofexperience in this kind of business with seven tourism and floating restaurantboats.
At the beginning, the company had a very good business at the Bach Dang wharfin District 1. After local authorities suddenly stopped business activities inthe wharf in early 2015, the company moved to Nha Rong port in district 4 andhad to sell four boats because of a lack of space to dock and the Nha Rong portis a cargo, not tourism, port.
Since early 2015, the company has paid a fee of 400 million VND (18,000 USD)per month for its three boats as docking at the Nha Rong Wharf, which is threetimes higher than the rate of 100 million VND when they were in the Bach DangWharf.
“All expenditure has been put into the prices of our services and thencustomers have to suffer. This does not encourage the domestic waterwaytourism,” An Son Lam, director of the company told the ThanhNien (Young People) newspaper.
The situation became worse as local authorities planned to boost the localwaterway tourism. The Culture, Sports and Tourism Department encouraged thecompany to invest into the industry and “promised” that they would have enoughspace to dock.
“We have invested several millions of US dollar to build a high-quality andluxury floating restaurant but we had to receive a ’death sentence’ when wewere told that there was no space to dock, while our boat was being built,” Lamsaid.
“At the present, the city has 1,800 meters of wharfs and the city must use atleast 1,000 m if they want to boost the local waterway tourism sector,” hesuggested.
The similar situation has happened to the Hoang Trieu Investment Joint StockCompany with 15 canoes for waterway tourism services.
“Now there are only three ports for local waterway tours in HCM City but onlythe Tan Cang port is good enough for tourism,” Lieu Thi My Hanh, director ofthe company said.
Phan Xuan Anh, chairman of the Du Ngoan Viet Ltd company, pointed out that thecity has lost its potential for waterway tourism as the city authorities closedthe Bach Dang and Nha Rong ports.
“Investing in building a port for international tourists in that Den Do Cape isnecessary but these two ports have historical meanings and are in goodlocations to boost tourism,” he said.
“Local authorities should encourage investment for new tourism waterway ports,”he added.
“The Saigon River bank should be an open and public space which connects withthe tourism ports. The city should release a master plan with space forpedestrians, ports and a bus system,” architect Ngo Viet Nam Son said.-VNA
