Located in the middle of the poetic Tien River, Cu Lao Gieng commune, An Giang province possesses a unique religious architectural complex, a rich ecosystem and traditional craft villages with strong Western identity.
With its own advantages, this locality has many potentials and advantages to develop community ecotourism and cultural and spiritual tourism.
"Green island" in the middle of Tien River
Cu Lao Gieng, located in the middle of Tien River bordering Dong Thap province, is 12 km long and about 7 km wide, and is considered the "religious island" of the West. This place converges a rich, ancient and unique system of religious architecture.
The highlight is Cu Lao Gieng Church, built in 1879, one of the oldest churches in the South with strong Asian-European architectural imprints. Next to it are the Providence Monastery and Fansico Monastery - vestiges associated with the process of spreading Catholicism in the river region of the South.
Cu Lao Gieng not only has Catholic architecture but is also a place to preserve the Buddhist spirit with ancient pagodas such as Thanh Hoa Pagoda, Phuoc Thanh Pagoda... contributing to creating a harmonious and unique cultural and religious picture. The whole commune currently has 24 places of worship, religion and belief.
Among them, Phuoc Thanh Pagoda is recognized as a Vietnamese record with the largest complex of Amitabha Buddha and 48 Bodhisattvas in the country, a sacred destination that attracts tens of thousands of domestic and foreign tourists every year.
Joining his family on a river tour from Can Tho to Chau Doc (An Giang), Mr. Tran Van Hung (Hanoi) said that the stop at Cu Lao Gieng was a memorable experience for his family during the whole trip.
The most impressive thing for me was the visit and worship at Phuoc Thanh Pagoda where there is a very solemn and majestic complex of Amitabha Buddha and 48 Bodhisattvas.
“My kids love visiting the fruit garden and picking fruit to eat right there; and I love the specialty dish of braised linh fish with sugarcane and garden vegetables. This is a great place for a weekend getaway,” Mr. Hung happily said.
Joining a group of tourists from Ho Chi Minh City to visit Cu Lao Gieng, Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Yen said: “I had heard about Cu Lao Gieng Church and Chua Quan Phung Monastery, but when I got there, I was truly impressed by the quiet space, ancient architecture combined with the charming scenery. I especially enjoyed rowing a boat along the small canal, watching the fruit gardens and chatting with the locals; it felt like finding a peaceful place in the middle of a busy life.”
Not only does it have a spiritual and cultural element, Cu Lao Gieng also possesses a cool green nature with fruit-laden orchards, a system of interwoven canals and a peaceful lifestyle typical of the Southern countryside.
This is a favorable condition for developing community ecotourism and experiential tourism such as rowing boats, picking fruits, enjoying rustic cuisine, participating in traditional festivals and exploring craft villages such as boat building.
Exploiting the advantages of developing cultural and ecological tourism
On the Tien River, Cu Lao Gieng is also one of the favorite stops in the Mekong River discovery tours from Can Tho and Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh (Cambodia) of international shipping lines.
French tourist Lucas Martin said: “I came to An Giang on a journey to explore the Mekong River, and was surprised to visit Cu Lao Gieng. The nature here is very green, peaceful, and imbued with indigenous cultural identity. I stayed at a small homestay, enjoyed many local dishes, watched traditional music performances, etc. This was a very unique and memorable experience during the trip. I think this place has great potential to attract international visitors if it is widely promoted.”
To promote the potential and advantages of tourism on Cu Lao Gieng, recently, An Giang Tourism industry has invested in upgrading many relics in Cu Lao Gieng.
The province has allocated more than 2.4 billion VND to restore 4 important relics, combined with promoting the locality as a typical cultural and ecological destination of the West.
Mr. Vo Minh Nang, Secretary of Cu Lao Gieng commune, shared that Cu Lao Gieng has many potentials and strengths to develop eco-tourism, sightseeing, and resorts compared to many other localities in the Mekong Delta region.
In recent times, Cu Lao Gieng has received attention from the province, supported to attract investment and encourage tourism development and investment in synchronous infrastructure to ensure connection of waterway and road tours.
“To develop tourism on Cu Lao Gieng, the commune will focus on promoting the image of Cu Lao Gieng to domestic and foreign tourists; coordinate with the Department of Tourism and companies, businesses, and travel agencies to survey tourist attractions in Cu Lao Gieng commune to invest and connect tourist tours,” said Mr. Nang.
According to Mr. Nang, in the coming time, the locality will actively coordinate with travel agencies to create regional tours to promote existing local tourism such as combining spiritual and resort tourism; visiting fruit gardens combined with picnics.
At the same time, the commune will coordinate with provincial departments and branches to call on domestic and foreign businesses to invest in building quality tourist areas to better serve tourists.
Promoting investment attraction, improving tourism infrastructure
In 2024, Cu Lao Gieng welcomed over 66,000 visitors to visit pagodas and religious establishments. Of which, Con En Tourist Site is the most attractive destination for tourists when coming to Cu Lao Gieng, attracting nearly 13,000 visitors to visit and have fun.
In the tourism development strategy, Cu Lao Gieng commune promotes investment attraction, supports procedures for businesses to implement tourism projects, contributing to the development of types such as eco-tourism, garden tourism, cuisine, homestay, etc.
At the same time, the commune invested in upgrading traffic and waterway infrastructure to serve transportation and tourism development. Currently, a number of tourism projects have been and are being implemented on Cu Lao Gieng, notably Con En Tourist Site invested by Duong Khang One Member Limited Liability Company, which has put into operation phase 1 since early 2023, attracting a large number of visitors.
Currently, the commune is also calling for investment in other projects such as Tan Long Hamlet Eco-tourism Area, Tay Thuong Hamlet, Cu Lao Gieng Community Eco-tourism Area, high-tech aquaculture model combined with eco-tourism.
This is an important premise for developing green tourism with local identity. Despite its great potential, according to many travel companies, Cu Lao Gieng tourism still faces many difficulties.
Among them, service infrastructure is still fragmented, lacking typical tourism products, businesses operate in a fragmented manner, lacking experience and capital. Human resources serving tourism are still unprofessional; promotion work is ineffective due to the lack of core products and unattractive communication content.
To make Cu Lao Gieng an attractive destination for tourists, the commune will mobilize people with conditions to participate in tourism development, pilot homestay models in fruit gardens, expand food and beverage services, resorts and souvenir sales; develop environmentally friendly means of passenger transport; combine craft villages into sightseeing and experience spots.
At the same time, the commune will closely coordinate with religious establishments in conservation, tour guidance and environmental sanitation, ensuring a safe and friendly tourism image.
With beautiful nature, rich culture and religion, and the right orientation, Cu Lao Gieng promises to become a typical destination of An Giang province and the Mekong Delta region in the near future.
However, to make a strong breakthrough, the locality needs a more systematic strategy in developing core tourism products, preserving identity, linking regions and improving service quality./.
Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/an-giang-loi-the-phat-trien-du-lich-cu-lao-gieng-gan-voi-sinh-thai-va-tam-linh-post1053319.vnp
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