Cua Lo: Towards a civilized and modern coastal tourist city

With the advantage of being a coastal tourist town, located in the key tourist route of the Central provinces, with favorable traffic conditions by waterway, road, and air, being a gateway to the East Sea, with great potential for service development - tourism, seafood exploitation and processing... Cua Lo is aiming to be an "Island Sea Tourism Paradise" attracting domestic and international tourists.

If someone came to Cua Lo in the 90s and 91s of the last century and now returned, they would surely be surprised by a very spacious Cua Lo today, with flat roads and walkways, welcoming visitors.

Currently, the Town has 222 accommodation establishments with 5,748 rooms and 12,166 beds, capable of receiving and serving 15,500 guests/day. Many establishments have conference halls and functional services to ensure good service for national and international conferences and seminars such as: Saigon - Kim Lien Hotel, Green Hotel... There are 50 accommodation establishments preparing documents to submit to competent authorities for ranking from 1 to 3 stars to be worthy of advantages and potential, improving service quality to meet the needs of tourists.

Every year, the town attracts billions of dong in tourism investment, including many projects that have become "highlights" for Cua Lo tourism such as: Binh Minh Square, Town Stadium, Song Ngu Island, Milk Factory, Trang An Confectionery Factory, 18-hole Golf Course Project with high-class hotel and motel of Sea Golf Joint Stock Company, Van Xuan Private University of Technology... Along with that is a system of cool green grass, a complete and modern lighting system, a system of clean and beautifully planned kiosks in the beach park area, east of Binh Minh Street - the main road into the town... are the colors that create a unique beauty for Cua Lo every tourist season.

To contribute to serving tourists, since 2005, Cua Lo has promptly formed many attractive tours such as: Cua Lo - Uncle Ho's Hometown; Cua Lo - Lam River - Cui Temple; Cua Lo - Vinh - Kim Lien Relic Site - Pu Mat Primitive Forest; Cruise to visit Lan Chau Island - Turtle Cave - Fairy Island; Cua Lo - Ngu Island - Mat Island - Lam River... A joy has just arrived on the first day of the 2011 tourist season for the coastal town, that is Song Ngu Pagoda on Ngu Island has just been granted a certificate of recognition as a historical and cultural relic. Thus, up to this point, the town has had 6/21 historical and cultural relics ranked, contributing to enriching the spiritual and cultural tourism tours. It is known that in this 2011 tourist season alone, the town has coordinated to open a number of new routes to serve tourists such as: Cua Lo - Cau Treo Border Gate - Lac Xao; Cua Lo - Bai Lu;...

Visitors to Cua Lo, in addition to enjoying seafood specialties and soaking in the cool, clear seawater, can also participate in sports activities such as diving, surfing, beach volleyball, jet skiing... or visit night markets specializing in selling fresh and dried seafood of guaranteed quality; or visit the Nghi Thiet boat building craft village, Nghi Xuan weaving village, Nghi Hai seafood processing village, the souvenir making facility from snail shells of the Cua Hoi Youth Enterprise... by convenient and affordable means such as: electric cars, tourist cyclo, tandem bicycles...

Mr. Le Minh Thong - Chairman of the Town People's Committee said: In order to meet the increasingly better demand for tourist services, worthy of being the "Paradise of Sea and Island Tourism", this tourist season, Cua Lo has proposed a number of incentive policies, attracting companies and enterprises to invest in new products, in which priority is given to entertainment services. Therefore, many companies and enterprises inside and outside the province have chosen Cua Lo to invest and develop new products for tourism. A typical example is the project of a golf course complex, hotel, and luxury villas of Cua Lo Sea Golf Company built in Nghi Huong ward with a total area of ​​over 130 hectares, with an investment of over 1,500 billion VND, which has now been basically completed. On the occasion of the opening of the 2011 Cua Lo tourist season, the Company opened an 18-hole golf course attracting many golfers, and put the villa area into operation. Tourists can choose product packages including accommodation and golf. Not only that, Cua Lo also focuses on developing eco-tourism. Up to now, the Cua Hoi Resort Project and the north of Lan Chau Island have been invested in construction by the Vietnam Oil and Gas Company. When these two resorts are completed, they will not only meet the needs of tourists visiting and enjoying new products, but also create highlights for Cua Lo. In addition, the town also guides tourists to visit historical and cultural relics and scenic spots such as Ngu Island Pagoda Beach, Van Loc Temple, Lo Son Temple, Thu Lung Temple and traditional handicraft and seafood processing villages. At the same time, developing resort tourism, health care, sports tourism, seminars and conferences. Currently, Cua Lo continues to focus on directing businesses and individuals providing tourism services to improve the quality of existing products. In addition to actively investing in upgrading facilities, hotels and restaurants are constantly improving the professional skills of staff, especially behavioral culture. Enterprises and individuals in Cua Lo strictly implement the town's "5 no's" policy and the Tourism Law, and at the same time, make every effort to bring tourists high-quality products and the best service. Cua Lo is confidently striving to complete the target of attracting about 2 million visitors to visit and relax with revenue from tourism services of 900 billion VND in 2011.

Identifying sea tourism as a key economic sector, important to bring the town's socio-economic development to a sustainable, modern and civilized state, Cua Lo is striving for new directions in the future such as: building a modern port industrial park connecting Cua Lo, Cua Hoi with Song Ngu island with interconnected wharves and modern equipment systems to receive cargo ships of more than 10,000 tons, receive international cruise ships from many countries around the world, receive large fishing boats to buy materials and sell products. Accordingly, ice factories, seafood processing plants and facilities for maintenance, repair and new shipbuilding will be formed. Information transmission and reception centers, maritime signals, international credit and service facilities, tourism, accommodation, rest and entertainment will also spring up. At that time, Cua Lo beach will stretch along the forest and be accompanied by service facilities along the 10km long coastline. Streets with entertainment facilities interspersed with forests not only extend along the beach but also spread out to Lan Chau island...

With such long-term strategic orientations, today, Cua Lo has been, is and will be taking steps to bring the Town to its potential, on par with other provinces in the region and the country, becoming a civilized and modern coastal tourist city.

Thanh Thuy