Exploiting the potential of rural tourism

(Baonghean) - On March 17, in Vinh City, the Provincial People's Committee coordinated with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to organizeWorkshop "Developing rural tourism in Nghe An"to find solutions to exploit potential.

With a favorable location for air, road and waterway, and being one of the important gateways of the East-West economic corridor - connecting Myanmar - Thailand - Laos - Vietnam with the East Sea through Nam Can and Thanh Thuy border gates, the rural areas of our province have diverse and rich natural resources, concentrating many famous relics, unique customs and practices, especially valuable cultural heritages, notably the Vi and Giam folk songs - Representative intangible cultural heritage of humanity that have been preserved and promoted in the lives of Nghe people.

The workshop “Developing rural tourism in Nghe An” was held to find solutions to exploit the potential. Photo: TT

In recent years, with the attention and direction of the departments, branches, the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Committee, Nghe An tourism industry has made progress in many aspects. The number of visitors and tourism revenue has increased significantly every year. The development of tourism in the province has contributed to shifting the economic structure of the province, creating jobs and increasing income for all classes of people, raising people's knowledge, improving the ecological environment, adding beauty to the landscape and contributing to increasing budget revenue. Accordingly, exploiting the potential of rural tourism is a direction that the province is aiming for. In recent times, the province has implemented a number of projects such as: "Developing community tourism associated with hunger eradication and poverty reduction in the Western region of Nghe An", "Developing border tourism"... Since then, a number of tourism types have been formed such as: eco-tourism, adventure tourism, mountain climbing, river crossing, waterfall crossing, sunflower viewing tourism of TH Group, Trai Bo eco-tourism (Dien Lam - Dien Chau), visiting brocade weaving and weaving villages in the plains and mountainous areas of Nghe An... initially creating new tourism products, creating attraction for tourists... However, the organization of these types of tourism is still spontaneous, unprofessional, and the types of services are still monotonous. Support and collaboration human resources in localities are still weak. Tourism and traffic infrastructure at these routes are still backward, not properly invested to meet development requirements...

From that reality, this workshop was organized with the desire to become a forum for relevant agencies, departments and branches to propose appropriate directions and solutions for rural tourism development. With 10 presentations and opinions such as "Some issues on rural tourism development in Nghe An", "Current situation and solutions for rural tourism development", "Linking agricultural products with rural tourism development"... especially with the cooperation, support and consultation of JICA - Japan, it is hoped that in the coming time, rural tourism in our province will exploit its potential well.

According to Ms. Le Thi Thanh Thuy, Deputy Director of Nghe An Tourism Promotion Center, to exploit that potential, it is necessary to have the participation of travel centers, potential localities and especially the way of doing, the synchronous participation of local people who must be responsible in exploiting, preserving and conserving. Mr. Ta Khac Uyen, Director of Nghe An Tourism Joint Stock Company, said: To develop rural tourism associated with hunger eradication, poverty reduction and economic restructuring, narrowing the gap between rich and poor between urban and rural areas, we need to change the awareness, thinking and working style of people in areas where people participate in tourism services and tourism products. Specifically: Increase the opening of training courses for local people; build and develop tours to rural areas; Focus on investing in typical traditional craft villages, especially needing to organize professionally from production - processing - displaying products and selling in craft villages. Complete tourism planning for each locality and craft village, and strengthen state management to implement approved plans, avoiding fragmented business. Build rural tourism models suitable for different localities. Increase investment in infrastructure, technical facilities and tourism products to make Vietnamese villages more accessible and facilitate connections between villages and regions in attracting tourists... Particularly, travel agencies when building rural tourism programs need to carefully study the characteristics of localities with tourism resources. At the same time, increase market expansion and promote rural tourism programs.

Dien Lam Cow Farm Eco-tourism Area (Dien Chau) Photo: Van Truong

In addition to building destinations, building typical rural tourism products of the region is also very important. Regarding this issue, the representative of the Department of Industry and Trade said: In recent times, our province has gradually formed 3 typical products that are loved by tourists, which are peanut candy, Do Luong sesame rice paper, Vinh oranges and Hoa Tien brocade products (Quy Chau). However, in order for these products to become the province's tourism gifts for tourists, in the coming time, relevant departments and branches need to coordinate to build and develop these products into tourism products such as building packaging and labels for each product; having plans, promotional campaigns, propaganda on official media, participating in fairs, exhibitions ... more; Building distribution channels at tourist destinations according to the hotel and restaurant system, at entertainment, recreation and shopping spots in rural tourism areas ...

Mr. Ando Katsuhiro - JICA Vietnam Tourism Development Expert affirmed: Nghe An has full potential to develop rural tourism. First of all, the Party Committee and authorities at the district, commune, village and hamlet levels must realize that the development of rural tourism is an important issue to promote the value of villages, contributing to economic and social development, hunger eradication and poverty reduction. This awareness must be demonstrated by concrete actions from the planning, planning and implementation stages. In particular, the role of the community is very important in the construction and development of rural tourism. Only when people benefit from tourism and directly participate in activities as the main actors, will rural tourism be successful and develop sustainably. To do so, Nghe An needs to educate the community on the importance of preserving nature and preserving national cultural identity to avoid being lost. In order for the poor here to benefit from the tourism industry, the people themselves must be aware and participate in the main role to create jobs for themselves. People can seek profits from tourism through selling products and services such as agricultural products, handicrafts, local products. Tourists visiting destinations can participate in the production process of products such as embroidery, brocade weaving, baking, cooking or participate in farming activities with the local people; exchange and buy and sell small, retail, thereby helping to increase people's income, while bringing colorful and rewarding experiences to tourists.

However, the important thing is that if Nghe An wants to develop rural tourism, it needs to focus on renewing its products in ways that are suitable to the potential of each locality. For example: in Nam Dan - the cradle of singing vi phuong vai, where the Lam River flows through, to exploit it, it is possible to bring singing vi phuong vai to serve cruises on the Lam River; In the Western districts such as Con Cuong, Quy Hop, Quy Chau ... it is necessary to promote traditional brocade weaving villages, experiential tourism associated with learning about the lives of the people here... Mr. Ando Katsuhiro affirmed: "To support Nghe An in developing rural tourism, in the coming time, JICA will focus on investing in building small tourist information centers suitable for each locality, public sanitation systems at rural tourist destinations such as Nam Dan, Yen Thanh, Con Cuong... where the organization has surveyed. However, to exploit this, JICA needs the cooperation and support of relevant departments and branches. Specifically: On the side of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee, it is necessary to direct and lead the project to proceed smoothly; Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism coordinates with us to improve rural tourism services; Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Department of Industry and Trade have links to build tourism products, tourist gifts for tourists from agricultural products; Cooperative Alliance will support in organizing, Selecting model models, participating in training human resources at tourist destinations; District People's Committees are the agencies directly allocating projects; Tourism Promotion Centers support and advise on how to promote tours and tourist routes... All of these methods aim at the goal of working together to improve the lives of people in areas with difficult economic conditions.

Thanh Thuy