Tourism stimulus solutions

(Baonghean) - The establishment of specialized streets not only gathers households specializing in trading similar products in the area, but also creates a driving force to promote the development of the commercial and service economy, especially tourism...

After 7 years of planning and building specialized streets, Vinh City currently has many clearly defined specialized streets, such as: Tran Phu Street with 72 furniture stores (27 stores in 2007); Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street with 82 stores selling mobile phones, telecommunications equipment and information technology products (38 stores in 2007); Quang Trung - Le Loi Street with 14 motorbike stores; Dang Thai Than Street with 87 fashion clothing stores; Nguyen Van Cu Street with 31 snack shops, grilled food shops, restaurants; Nguyen Sy Sach Street specializes in selling electrical and water materials, construction; Le Hong Phong Street specializes in selling cosmetics, fashion clothes; Cao Thang Street specializes in selling gold, silver, precious stones...

Dinh Cong Trang Street (Vinh City) specializes in cu-do - a specialty of Nghe An.

The formation of specialized streets has contributed to making Vinh city's appearance rich and bustling, the trading market more professional, and at the same time, State management and fee collection are more convenient. On the consumer side, there are more choices and comparisons in terms of design, quality and price. Ms. Tran Thi Lan, owner of a fashion store on Dang Thai Than street, said: Those who do business on specialized streets have the advantage of being sought out by many customers, because the street has become a "brand".

New batch of candy.

In terms of trade, services, and consumer goods, the specialized streets in Vinh City have been effective in meeting the needs of people in the province and part of Ha Tinh province, but from a tourism perspective, no specialized street here has been effective or attractive enough for tourists to "open their wallets". First of all, in terms of goods and prices: Goods on specialized streets in Vinh City can be purchased very easily anywhere in the country. The goods are all common consumer goods, without the unique identity of Vinh City or Nghe An. For example, Tran Phu Street sells furniture, but is promoting the northern wood craft villages, the southern plastic products, etc.

Dao Tan - Vinh Ancient Citadel night food street is being forgotten: It has been in operation since April 2008 with nearly 30 households selling items such as porridge, pho, vermicelli, and cakes. Up to now, the food area has been reduced to nearly 10 shops. The shops no longer operate only at night but also during the day. The environmental sanitation here is not good and so is security and order. Discussing about this night food area, Mr. Nguyen Cong Thuc - Chairman of Cua Nam Ward People's Committee said: The night food area has not really been effective, the tax and fee are not worth much, while the force to ensure security, order, and environmental sanitation of the ward needs many people to perform the task, cleaning up, and being on duty day and night. The space cannot be expanded further...". Even newly emerging food streets such as Nguyen Van Cu and Hong Bang streets are still facing many shortcomings, food safety and hygiene have not been given due attention, making tourists not very "interested" in coming to enjoy.

Secondly, the specialized streets are not yet associated with tourist resorts and accommodation, nor are they associated with historical and cultural relics. For example, from hotels, tourists who want to go to the night food court have to take a taxi, instead of walking to enjoy the beauty of Vinh city at night. Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh - Director of Huu Nghi International Travel Center said: "For Vinh to stand out in tourism, there must be typical Vinh gifts, Nghe An gifts, unique values ​​that cannot be found anywhere else, for example: fish sauce, Thanh Chuong pickled vegetables, cu-do, Vinh oranges... Only then can travel agents like us introduce them to tourists when they want to shop or visit. We really need to build streets specializing in such gifts".

A model that Vinh City can learn from is Da Nang City. In 2012, the city on the Han River began to focus on implementing the Project "Developing specialized business areas and shopping centers serving tourists" with the hope that this will become a destination in the city's tours and tourist routes. Accordingly, in 2013 and 2014, Da Nang launched a pilot model of specializing in some goods on routes and areas such as: Le Duan and Phan Chau Trinh streets will be for the fashion industry; Hoang Dieu and Dao Duy Tu streets will be for the electronics industry; Hung Vuong and Huyen Tran Cong Chua streets will be for the souvenir and handicraft industry; Hoang Sa and Truong Sa streets will be for cuisine. Da Nang City also invested in building and upgrading infrastructure for electricity, water, telecommunications, sidewalks, trees, building signs, and resting benches to create favorable conditions for business; directing business units to synchronize the facade with aluminum signs; awnings; decorative lights. Households not doing business on this route are not allowed to use the sidewalk for business; doing business in the right products for a long time will be supported by the People's Committee to grant business licenses as well as fees and taxes according to State regulations.

Ms. Dang Thi Hoa, Chairwoman of Ha Huy Tap Ward People's Committee, said: The study tour in Da Nang has given us many lessons in building a specialized street. However, in reality, it is not easy to mobilize households with advantages on the street, business households, and business households to convert or do new business with suitable product groups in the area... Mr. Tran Van Chien, owner of a gem, feng shui stone, fine art painting, and stone items shop in Quy Hop, Quy Chau on Ha Huy Tap Street, expressed: "Doing business with friends, selling with a ward, I still hope that around my shop there will be more shops selling similar products. The street does not have many business advantages, and a shop located alone like this makes it even more difficult to do business."

Vinh City is striving to become the center of the North Central region. It is thought that, to accelerate this process, the city needs to focus on building and perfecting specialized streets, especially streets specializing in tourism products. Necessary and sufficient measures are to encourage the construction of specialized streets by creating a transparent mechanism for granting business licenses, having support policies, consulting and promoting for commercial businesses, especially giving priority to stores and businesses trading in goods originating from and produced in the province; building specialized streets that are compatible with tourist attractions.

Here, there are regulations on the percentage of households on a street doing business in the same product; building strong enough sanctions and strictly implementing them against households doing business in the wrong industry or profession or doing business in violation of regulations; strengthening inspection, control and management of the quality of business items, listing prices, selling at listed prices for the system of commercial shopping centers serving tourism in the area; propagating to change thinking and awareness to connect and coordinate with those who have the conditions to develop service business; need to build products with the brands "Vinh city", "Nghe"; organize training and fostering for management teams, sales staff in specialized streets and shopping centers serving tourism in the area; signing cooperation agreements with tourism businesses so that tours stop at specialized streets, shops with local specialties and advantages...

Article and photos:Thanh Chung