Con Cuong District Party Secretary: 'We will promote tourism on Facebook'

(Baonghean) - Implementing the Project "Developing tourism in Con Cuong district in the period of 2013 - 2020", up to now, the tourism industry of Con Cuong district has had initial positive changes. Nghe An Newspaper had an interview with comrade Nguyen Dinh Hung - Secretary of Con Cuong District Party Committee on this issue.

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How can you assess the tourism development potential of Con Cuong district?

Con Cuong has many advantages for tourism development. First of all, in terms of geographical location and natural conditions, Con Cuong is a fertile land with mountains, rivers and a large area of ​​natural forests in the buffer zone of Pu Mat National Park. Traffic is convenient, being the center of National Highway 7A, convenient for tourists on routes from Vinh to Ky Son or from Hanoi to Nam Can Border Gate and connecting with tourist destinations in Xieng Khouang province of Laos.

The whole district has 128,000 hectares of forest in Pu Mat National Park and Pu Huong Nature Reserve with more than 1,200 rare plant species, hundreds of flora and fauna species listed in the Red Book protected by the world. Along with the flora and fauna, there are many beautiful waterfalls such as Kem waterfall, Moc stream and many interesting caves: Tham Om cave, Tham Nang Man cave, Ong Trang cave; many historical and cultural relics such as Ma Nhai stele, Dao Nguyen cave, Tra Lan ancient citadel...

Surveying orange gardens in Yen Khe. Photo: Nguyen Son

Favorable natural conditions also bring to the locality many precious products, specialties loved by tourists such as river and stream fish, along with livestock and poultry raised naturally by the people for delicious, clean food quality.

Another potential and advantage with local characteristics is that Con Cuong has 7 ethnic groups living together, creating a unique cultural identity in both tangible and intangible aspects.

What solutions has Con Cuong had to develop tourism and what results have been achieved so far?

Based on those favorable conditions, the provincial and central leaders have paid great attention to the socio-economic development of Con Cuong district, including the development of tourism as a spearhead of the district's economic development. In 2015, the province issued Decision No. 4789/QD-UBND approving the "Project to build Con Cuong district into a town in the direction of an ecological urban area".

Accordingly, the goal for the 2016 - 2020 period is to build and develop Con Cuong district into an economic and cultural center of the Southwest region of Nghe An; for the 2021 - 2025 period, Con Cuong will be developed into an ecological urban area of ​​the province, a driving force of the Southwest region of Nghe An. In early 2016, Comrade Tong Thi Phong - Member of the Politburo, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly and Comrade Nguyen Dac Vinh - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Comrade Nguyen Xuan Duong - Deputy Secretary, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee had a meeting with the district leaders on the orientation of developing Con Cuong into an ecological town, including tourism development and forest resource protection.

Con Cuong Town.

On the district side, since 2014, the Project "Developing tourism in Con Cuong district for the period 2013 - 2020" and the Project "Preserving and promoting the cultural heritage values ​​of ethnic groups in Con Cuong district" have been issued. Up to now, Con Cuong has formed tourist routes and destinations such as visiting and exploring Pu Mat National Park, Khe Kem waterfall, Sang Le forest; Giang - Khe Khang river, associated with the development of cultural tourism activities such as exploring the Mon Son - Luc Da festival.

We also introduce traditional handicraft products imbued with the identity of ethnic minorities such as skirts, shirts, brocade fabrics, rice wine, culinary specialties... of brocade weaving cooperatives, villages with traditional crafts and tourism services in Chi Khe and Luc Da communes. In addition, building community tourism spots in Nua village in Yen Khe commune, Yen Thanh village in Luc Da commune, Xieng village in Mon Son commune and Khe Ran village in Bong Khe commune...

In 2016 alone, the district's tourism industry has seen many improvements, with over 35,000 tourists coming to Con Cuong, 3 times more than in 2015. However, it must be affirmed that, due to many factors, both objective and subjective, Con Cuong has not yet fully exploited its potential for tourism development.

In the coming time, what measures will the district take to maximize available potential to develop the tourism industry in the right direction, effectively and sustainably?

We determined that if we want tourism to be effective and sustainable, we need to change the mindset of each individual in doing tourism.

Implementing in this direction, after a period of drastic implementation with many measures, now there are some localities and villages where people have become aware and started to "do" tourism in a practical, effective and sustainable way.

For example, people have established self-managed groups and coordinated with each other in each stage to build a community tourism site based on national cultural identity and local characteristics. Not only promoting local cultural identities, people have even organized English classes for people to train in foreign language use, aiming to attract not only domestic but also foreign tourists.

In particular, we also focus on guiding people to produce food, plant and animal specialties in the direction of clean agriculture. Food served to tourists must be of good quality and safe.

Khe Ran gong club performs for tourists. Photo: Hoai Thu

In addition to developing the economy by attracting tourists, Con Cuong must also have measures and methods to harmonize the benefits between economic and social development and propaganda for tourists and people to be aware of preserving forest resources and ensuring border security.

Those two factors complement each other. Only by preserving the forest and maintaining security and order can people and tourists feel secure in exploiting and enjoying scenic spots and exploring local cultural identities.

Besides long-term orientation and proposing solutions and implementation measures, there are other important issues to make Con Cuong an attractive tourist destination for domestic and foreign tourists, which are attracting investment, building infrastructure and promoting the Con Cuong tourism "brand".

Up to now, the district is focusing on attracting investment in some key places such as Khe Kem waterfall, Pha Lai dam, cruise on Giang river... Among them, Muong Thanh Group, in addition to building a 4-star hotel, continues to invest in some other locations in the district.

We also promote the local tourism potential on many information channels, including Facebook. The district Party Committee leaders have assigned specific responsibilities to each organization and individual, mobilizing the entire political system to participate with the determination to make tourism economy become the spearhead of the district's development, gradually realizing the goal of making Con Cuong an eco-tourism city of the Southwest of Nghe An.

Hoai Thu

(Perform)