Vinh - Nam Dan - Cua Lo Tourism: Finding "bottlenecks" to "unblock"

(Baonghean) - In the tourism map of Nghe An, the Vinh - Nam Dan - Cua Lo route is identified as a key area. In fact, this is also the tourist route that accounts for the majority of visitors to Nghe An. However, the effectiveness of this tourist route is still not commensurate with its potential, and it is necessary to find the cause and solution to overcome it...

Tourists visit the Museum of Military Region IV.

According to statistics from the Management Board of Kim Lien Relic Site, on average, Nam Dan annually welcomes about 1.6 million tourists making pilgrimages to Uncle Ho's hometown. In 2013 alone, the number of visitors to Nam Dan reached 1,815,679; total revenue from tourism activities was over 176.5 billion VND. However, according to the assessment of Nam Dan district, the tourism industry has not developed commensurate with the district's potential, in which the number of overnight guests has not accounted for more than 0.2% of the total number of visitors each year.

There are many tourists coming to Nam Dan, but they mainly focus on the two main destinations: Uncle Ho's paternal and maternal hometowns (Hoang Tru and Lang Sen). Many tourist groups even choose to visit only one of the two above destinations. Recently, with the attention of the province, many destinations in the heritage complex in Nam Dan have been invested in upgrading. In particular, Nam Dan district has preserved, restored, and reconstructed many historical and cultural relics associated with the life and career of President Ho Chi Minh and typical cultural celebrities such as patriot Phan Boi Chau, the temple complex and the tomb of King Mai... Also in the series of tourist journeys in Nam Dan, not many people know about the Duc Son temple complex and pagoda in Van Dien commune. In particular, Duc Son pagoda is preserving 41 rare ancient statues, a set of 210 wooden blocks of Buddhist scriptures with special historical and cultural value. With such an attractive and dense tourist complex, why has Nam Dan not yet created a difference in exploiting tourism activities and services? The reason is determined to be due to the limited promotion, introduction, information and propaganda work, and monotonous tourism products. The problem of environmental sanitation has not been thoroughly resolved, causing loss of aesthetics and negatively affecting the psychology of tourists. There have been opinions that Nam Dan district should organize the construction of a number of resting places with thatched houses and earthen walls with free green tea to serve tourists, where local products such as grilled and boiled sweet potatoes, cassava starch, etc. are sold. Nam Dan soy sauce... Mr. Le Hai An - Executive Officer of Australia - Vietnam International Tourism Joint Stock Company said that for at least 10 years, he and many people have repeatedly suggested that Nam Dan district should include Nghe folk songs, hat vi, dam, phuong vai into tourism activities as an intangible product to serve tourists, but up to now, the district has not been able to do so. Meanwhile, if considering the level of uniqueness, Nghe folk songs are ranked among the top in the country and are being proposed for UNESCO to recognize as an intangible heritage of humanity. As for Nam Dan soy sauce products, according to Mr. Le Hai An, just by looking at them, one can see that the bottling of this product is very unhygienic. Nam Dan soy sauce is so famous, but it is being packaged in plastic bottles using shells from other foods...

Of the nearly 5 million tourists to Nghe An in the first 9 months of this year, nearly 100% of the total number of visitors and revenue that Nghe An tourism industry achieved mainly concentrated on the Vinh - Nam Dan - Cua Lo route. After conducting surveys and research in Cua Lo coastal town, most people working in the tourism and travel industry shared the same opinion: Cua Lo tourism has not changed much compared to previous years. Tourists coming to Cua Lo still follow a "trail" schedule: swimming - eating seafood - visiting some historical sites and... returning. In recent years, Cua Lo town has focused on investing in satellite systems to develop marine tourism. That is investing in embellishing, upgrading, and restoring architectural works and historical sites such as: Van Loc temple, Bau Loi temple, Song Ngu pagoda. Along with relics, landscapes, and destinations, Cua Lo Town also restores a number of traditional festivals such as: Boat Racing Festival, Van Loc Temple Festival, Cua Lo River Festival; builds fish sauce production villages... However, in general, the festivals are mainly at the district level; the activities of craft villages are still limited to local space and promotion and introduction are limited.

King Quang Trung Temple - an indispensable destination for many people when coming to Vinh city

In 2013 - 2014, in Cua Lo, there were 2 key tourism projects licensed for construction investment, which are the 27-storey hotel building of Muong Thanh Hotel Group and the Lan Chau - Song Ngu Eco-tourism Complex, Resort Villas, Entertainment and Sports Project, invested by Song Ngu Son Joint Stock Company. However, according to Mr. Bach Huy Viet - Director of Thien Viet Star Tourism and Trading Joint Stock Company, the current visit and survey of Ngu Island is only for the purpose of giving opinions, but currently it is not possible to exploit tourism and bring tourists to Ngu Island.

If the Vinh - Nam Dan - Cua Lo tourist route is considered a straight line, Vinh City is located at the midpoint. Unlike Nam Dan and Cua Lo, in Vinh City, the uniform development of infrastructure and the transportation system has created favorable conditions for Vinh City to expand trade, economic and social cooperation in general and promote the development of the smokeless industry in particular. The highest goal of Vinh City is to expand the scope of promoting tourism potential, thereby attracting more visitors. However, in the series of destinations that the tourism survey team has just conducted in Vinh City, most people think that Vinh City tourism only has Quang Trung Temple and Military Zone IV Museum which are really attractive. Other destinations have not created the necessary attraction.

Visitors visit heritage fig trees in Nghi Thinh commune (Nghi Loc)

Tourists take a canoe from Lan Chau island to Ngu island

“Still bland” - is the assessment of many people when conducting a survey of the Vinh - Nam Dan - Cua Lo tourist route. Mr. Nguyen Huu Bac - Thai Son International Travel Company said: “Travel companies and tour operators rarely exploit successfully in Nghe An. Tourists have also heard about Vinh oranges and Nam Dan soy sauce, but do not know where to buy them. The museum system operates monotonously and is being administrativeized”. The work of tour guides and interpreters is also a frequently mentioned issue. Currently, on the Vinh - Nam Dan - Cua Lo tourist route, in addition to the interpreters at the Kim Lien - Nam Dan relic site who are operating relatively effectively, the rest are absent. Even at the Quang Trung King Temple in Vinh City, there have been no tour guides or interpreters for a long time. Whenever there are requests from tourist groups, the Temple Management Board has to ask for help or hire them. Nghe An currently does not have interpreters at destinations, relics, and scenic spots who use foreign languages ​​to serve foreign visitors. This is also a disadvantage if the tourism industry wants to expand its scope and scale of attracting tourists.

To find the key to effectively open the Vinh - Nam Dan - Cua Lo tourism route, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism continues to assign the Nghe An Tourism Promotion Information Center to develop promotional programs. The province has planned to invest in a satellite service system to meet the needs of tourists such as: establishing the Nghe An Folk Song Club, building points of sale for soy sauce, sweet potato vegetables, and Nam Dan cassava. The implementation roadmap will begin in 2015. The province's tourism industry has requested funding to build 40 public toilets, with the largest number of priority given to Kim Lien - Nam Dan. The province also has planned to build a cultural, sports and tourism center of sufficient size to promote tourism and service activities - this will not only be a place to introduce and display Nghe An tourism products, but will also become a focal point for information and support for long-term tourism activities.

Dao Tuan