The website www.canthotourism.vn and the app “Can Tho Tourism”, available on Google’s CHPlay and the AppStore in English and Vietnamese, provide tourists with useful information on the city such as its history, culture, and attractions.

With artificial intelligence (AI), 3D sightseeing, and virtual reality (VR), the app allows visitors and users to take virtual visit to sites and quickly make bookings, locate destinations, and navigate via its interactive map.

It also recommends a list of prestigious accommodation providers, travel companies, restaurants, and shops, as well as diverse itineraries with a focus on relaxation, food, family activities, landscapes, and history, etc. Other useful information such as the weather, a 24/7 hotline, ATMs, exchange rates, hospitals, and gas stations are also available.

News and arts and entertainment events also allow tourists to fully prepare before their trip.

Along with helping tourists, the tourism portal and app also assist local tourism businesses to save on the cost of product and service promotions.

They are also good tools for helping State management agencies compile statistics and reports as well as information from users and businesses, thereby managing feedback and comments from travelers related to prices and the quality of travel services and analyzing and forecasting future tourism development trends.

Can Tho targets tourism becoming a key economic sector by 2020, as a tourist center and coordinator for the whole Mekong Delta region - one of the most developed tourist centers in the country.

The city welcomed 4.9 million visitors in the first half of this year, up 9.5 per cent against the same period last year, according to its tourism department.