The city Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism is planning to do a survey on a new river tour from next month that will allow visitors to cruise from HCMC through the Mekong Delta province of An Giang to Cambodia.

The department sees considerable potential in this after surveying two intra-city routes from Bach Dang Wharf to the Nha Be Confluence and Tau Hu Canal.

The tour operators hailed the proposal but pointed to the lack of a wharf for tourist boats.

There are 20 tourist boats, floating restaurants, and canoes operating from Bach Dang, which is not a tourist wharf, in District 1, Thoi Bao Kinh Te Sai Gon Online (Saigon Economic Times Online) reported.

They can dock there to pick up passengers but cannot anchor there for long due to the limited space.

The wharf also lacks tourist services and parking space for tourists’ vehicles.

Chiem Thanh Long, director of the Binh Quoi Tourist Village in Binh Thanh District, said his company had to cancel a plan to build a large floating restaurant due to the lack of docking space.

“I think the most important aspect of the river tourism development plan is to build a tourist wharf in the city,” he said.

Around 188,000 foreign travelers visited HCMC in July, the tourism low season, up 20 percent year on year but down by 12,000 from June, according to the department.

Source: TT