To make Nghe An craft village tourism 'reign'

Lack of products, few customers

Coming to the brocade weaving village of Lang Xieng, Mon Son commune (Con Cuong), people will admire many types of products such as scarves, skirts, shirts... with rich motifs and patterns of high artistic value, reflecting the skillful craftsmanship of skilled workers and artisans.

The brocade weaving profession in Lang Xieng village has existed for a long time. Previously, due to small-scale production only serving the family, the products made by the people did not bring high economic value. Since 2014, the brocade weaving profession here has had a new development. The weavers have been trained properly and granted vocational certificates. In March 2017, the Provincial People's Committee granted a certificate of recognition to the brocade weaving profession in Lang Xieng village.

Based on being recognized as a craft village, plus the landscapes of an ancient Thai village, Lang Xieng is identified as a highlight of community tourism, craft village tourism to develop tourism in Con Cuong district. And from this orientation, Nghe An Tourism Department, Con Cuong district has made great efforts to promote the destination.

However, up to now, the brocade weaving village of Lang Xieng is similar to many other traditional villages in Nghe An, although it has many advantages for tourism development, the number of visitors coming to visit and experience here is not much. Ms. Ha Thi Hang - Head of the Handicraft and General Services Cooperative of Mon Son commune: "In the past, the unit has cooperated with a number of travel companies to bring visitors here to visit and experience the craft village, combined with introducing and selling products. However, in the peak summer season, there is only 1 group of visitors per week. The Cooperative just hopes that tourists will come, but there are few visitors and not many products sold."

The story of the brocade weaving craft in Lang Xieng village is also the story of the village with the traditional craft of making clay pots in Tru Son commune (Do Luong). In the 90s of the last century, the clay pot making craft declined. And in the past 4 years, the clay pot making craft in Tru Son has begun to flourish again thanks to the change in customers' preferences. Traders bring cars to order a lot of goods. Many tourist groups and student groups also come to visit and experience the craft of "squeezing clay to make pots".

Ms. Pham Thi Ngu, 53 years old, in Hamlet 11, was very happy to demonstrate the stages of kneading clay and shaping with skillful and meticulous techniques. Ms. Ngu shared: “Every year, to welcome Christmas, people often make a giant Christmas tree from impressive clay pots, imbued with local identity. In addition to hospitality, this is also a way to spread the reputation of Tru Son clay pots far and wide so that more tourists come to visit and many people come to buy pots. People have more income, and the traditional profession is preserved.”

Like many other tourists when coming to Tru Son, Ms. Sara Arduino (Italy) was very interested in witnessing the traditional occupation of the local people here, however, she also felt regretful when "coming to Tru Son but not being able to buy any souvenirs".

Need direction, specific way of doing

Few visitors, lack of products to serve - that is a limitation for the development of craft village tourism in Nghe An. Mr. Vo Hong Sang - Vice President of Nghe An Tourism Association said: "Village profession" has long only solved the daily livelihood problem of the people. The government and people in craft villages, villages with crafts in general still do not have the mindset of doing tourism. The production method is not really safe, the source of raw materials is not guaranteed, and the technology is backward.

There are very good craft villages, such as the dried seafood processing villages in Nghi Thuy and Nghi Tan, but they do not pay attention to the performance factor. Or there is a situation where tourists come to craft villages to learn about the customs, habits, traditional culture of the people and the land where the craft is made, but that village lacks "artisans" - people who really understand to introduce the cultural values. And there are also craft villages that currently lack the value of continuing young people who understand the craft.

The products have not changed in quality, design and style, and have not followed the tastes of tourists. Craftsmen are afraid that their products have high prices and there will be few buyers. Therefore, they do not pay much attention to tourists and do not pay much attention to advertising and introducing products to tourists. Enterprises associated with craft villages are not interested in tourism, so they have not built a space to display products and welcome visitors.

The above limitations have led to a situation where travel agencies are “thirsty” for destinations, but when organizing tours, they do not include craft villages. According to Mr. Nguyen Huu Bac - Director of a travel company in Nghe An: “These limitations clearly show that some local authorities are not really interested in developing tourism...”.

Indeed, even in Mon Son commune, "tourism" is a familiar phrase to the people, but up to now, according to Mr. Luong Van Tuan - Vice Chairman of Mon Son Commune People's Committee, the Party Committee and People's Committee of the commune have not had any specific Resolution or plan related to craft village tourism. Tourism development here is still based on projects of international organizations, the Provincial People's Committee, the Tourism industry and the efforts of individuals and businesses...

Currently, Nghe An has 152 craft villages and quite a few villages have crafts. The number of these craft villages is very diverse in terms of types from handicraft production, garment, consumption to food... attracting nearly 20,000 participants. The vast majority of villages have a vision, "imagination" about tourism but are still struggling to find ways to have similar products such as "sour shrimp, sesame candy, Hue conical hats". Such self-fumbling reflects a lack of direction and thinking!

In which direction should we develop craft village tourism? The sharing of Mr. Vu The Binh - Permanent Vice President of Vietnam Tourism Association is a valuable experience: "Vietnamese tourists are not much interested in cultural exploration but are interested in the value of cuisine, different from foreign tourists. Foreign tourists are interested in cultural sediments, products with dark tones, on the contrary, Vietnamese tourists like bright, shiny colors. Nghe An tourism should focus on attracting domestic tourists".

How to develop craft village tourism? The success story of the cooperative producing orange products in Pha village, Yen Khe commune, Con Cuong district is a way worth referring to. Thanks to the project "Diversifying livelihoods based on heritage tourism in agricultural and fishing villages" implemented by JICA and Nghe An province, a group of 9 orange growing households in the village was formed. From selling pure oranges, these 9 households were instructed to make other products such as orange essential oil, orange wine, orange peel jam and organized to take visitors to visit and pick fruit with a fee of 30,000 VND/person in the orange garden. When put into operation, the products made from oranges were not enough to sell; every week there were still 2-3 groups of visitors visiting the orange garden...

In order for craft village products to effectively promote the association of craft villages with tourism activities, on July 13, 2018, the People's Committee of Nghe An province issued Decision No. 2988/QD-UBND approving the detailed outline and tasks for implementing the Project on developing the production of some souvenir products and goods to serve tourists in Nghe An province. The core spirit of the project is that craft villages must gradually change their way of thinking to do tourism.