Final article: Building tourism products from attracting investment
Mr. Nguyen Ba Hoe - Head of the Management Board of Kim Lien Relic Site said: Visitors to Kim Lien mainly follow the Cua Lo - Vinh - Nam Dan route. Because in Kim Lien, tourism products are not yet synchronized, there are no accompanying services. If the Kim Lien Historical Relic Site and the heritage complex of President Ho Chi Minh and his relatives are the center, then surrounding are destinations, intangible values rich in identity and humanity. Those are the Relic Site and Temple of King Mai, the Historical Relic Site, the Memorial House of Phan Boi Chau, Phan Chu Trinh, the late General Secretary Le Hong Phong...
In addition, there are elements with profound spiritual and mental values, such as: Sen Village Festival, Mai King Festival, especially folk songs, Vi Dam with unique identities that cannot be found anywhere else. However, the monotony of tourism types and products has significantly affected the promotion of the inherent advantages of Nam Dan district. Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong - Director of the Tourism Promotion Information Center, said: Since 2005, the center has begun to form a number of craft villages in Nam Dan, coordinating with a number of departments and branches to invite artisans from Van Phuc craft village - Ha Tay (now Hanoi) to teach and pass on the profession, but it has not been successful.
Currently, Nghe An folk songs have been submitted to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for consideration of recognition as intangible cultural heritage of humanity. From a tourism perspective, if this type of folk culture is considered a product, it is a tourism product that has not been promoted. Because, in Nghe An in general and Nam Dan in particular, Nghe An folk songs have not been brought closer to tourists. In fact, we have built a number of clubs for singing in the fabric guilds and Vi Dam folk songs in Nam Dan, but they mainly stop at the criteria of preservation, and have not been recognized as a tourism product like Quan Ho in Bac Ninh, Thai Binh Cheo singing, Hanoi Ca Tru or more recently, Hue folk songs on the Perfume River.
In recent years, Cua Lo has been a convincing destination for the Northern tourist market. In 2012, the total number of visitors to Cua Lo reached over 1.9 million, of which overstayed visitors were estimated at over 1.2 million. However, according to many people, Cua Lo tourism could have achieved much more if it had focused more on providing in-depth and quality tourism products. For a long time, visitors to Cua Lo have followed a pre-programmed process: check in, go swimming, eat seafood and then... return. Although the basic facilities and infrastructure meet the needs of tourists, Cua Lo currently does not have any special services to keep visitors staying longer.
In fact, there have been ideas for the formation and establishment of high-class entertainment areas in Cua Lo, but they have not been implemented yet. In the context of economic difficulties and incomplete infrastructure conditions, no business has dared to invest in this service sector. Mr. Tran Van Hue - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nghe An Friendship Joint Stock Company said that the business has had ideas and surveys to invest in building entertainment areas for children and tourists, but once the local government of Cua Lo has not completely resolved the problems of clean water, electricity and traffic, the business cannot make the investment.
At present, Cua Lo has also formed a tourist route to visit Ngu Island, but it has not been well developed due to the lack of means of tourist boats to transport products, specialties, souvenirs are still Nghi Hai fish sauce, dried seafood; the rest, according to Mr. Doan Tien Dung - Vice Chairman of Cua Lo Town People's Committee, shopping services are not diverse, souvenirs are monotonous, the local government has oriented to build a number of models to produce tourist gift products but businesses are not interested. Cua Hoi Youth Production and General Service Enterprise was the first unit to participate in the production of souvenirs to serve tourists. But the production and processing stopped 2 years ago because the products did not have their own mark.
In the key tourist areas of the West, the service products are mainly concentrated in Pu Mat National Park, but not significantly. Some destinations in the buffer zone of Pu Mat National Park such as Khe Kem waterfall, Pha Lai dam - Giang river are mainly formed spontaneously. The difficulty of tourism in the West also comes from another reality, which is that tourism is located in the border area. There are places where tourism services and tourism products can be developed, but they are entangled in the sensitivity of the border area. "Simply carrying out administrative procedures here has created a bad mentality for tourists" - Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong shared.
In order to exploit the tourism potential and attract many investment projects in this field to create attractive destinations, thereby linking to build tourism products (tangible and intangible), however, most of the projects only focus on investing in building accommodation facilities in Vinh City and Cua Lo Town. In the period of 2011 - 2015, our province is calling for investors to invest in 8 resort projects concentrated in mountainous and suburban districts.
One of the investment projects in Nghe An tourism that has a time highlight is Bai Lu Eco-tourism Area located in the Southeast sea arc of Lach Van - Cua Hien - Cua Xa, with an area of nearly 160 hectares with sea, forest and mountains, divided into 2 phases. Phase 1 (2005 - 2008) completed the luxury coastal resort; phase 2 (2008 - 2015) built a 5-star hotel, helicopter airport, golf course, cultural and sports complex and other entertainment services... Currently, although phase 2 is in the process of completing, Bai Lu resort has been regularly chosen by domestic and foreign tourists as a meeting, exchange and relaxation place; officially opened in May 2008 with a total investment cost of phase I of more than 250 billion VND.
Bai Lu tourist area (Nghi Loc).
When asked why Bai Lu Investment and Business Joint Stock Company chose this place to invest in the construction of the Marine Ecotourism Project? Ms. Tran Thi Phu - General Director of Bai Lu Investment and Business Joint Stock Company, said: Before investing in Bai Lu - Nghi Loc - Nghe An, we carefully studied the advantages to develop marine tourism here. After the survey, the consensus of the Provincial People's Committee created favorable conditions for the company to complete the necessary procedures in the fastest time. With the desire to create a civilized and modern tourist and resort area, one of the most modern in the region, creating luxurious tourism products and services to serve domestic and foreign tourists of the Company has become a reality. Most tourists coming here feel new things, different from many beaches in the country. However, the project is currently facing some difficulties in implementing the next phases of the project.
In Cua Lo, in May 2011, the golf course complex was officially opened, this is part of the Project Complex invested by Tan Thanh Do Group Joint Stock Company, Phu Tho Infrastructure Investment and Construction Company Limited and Minh Long Company Limited. This complex has a total investment of more than 1,500 billion VND on an area of 133 hectares, including the following items: 18-hole golf course, 5-star hotel and 3-star hotel; resort villa area; beach entertainment area; conference and trade center...
Mr. Le Van Minh - Deputy Head of Tourism Department - Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said: Currently, tourism investment projects in the province only focus on investing in building hotels such as Saigon - Kim Lien, Muong Thanh - Song Lam, Phuong Dong, Muong Thanh - Dien Chau, Bai Lu resort... while eco-tourism and resort areas are currently having difficulty attracting investment. In the period of 2011 - 2015, there were 8 tourism projects that had specific plans and are currently attracting investment such as Pha Lai - Con Cuong eco-tourism resort project; Trang Den - Nam Dan lake; Khe Kem waterfall; Mui Rong - Nghi Thiet; Quyet Mountain - Ben Thuy park; Giang Son - Do Luong hot mineral water; Xao Va waterfall; Eco-tourism and conservation of rare African animals.
It is known that recently, Van Dien - Nam Dan eco-tourism area was chosen by Dai Loc Joint Stock Company for investment. In 2009, the investor completed the construction planning, completed the project marking, and proceeded with site clearance. From 2010 to now, the project has been at a standstill, due to difficulties in resolving some necessary requirements for the investor. Mr. Nguyen Van Chi - representative of Dai Loc Joint Stock Company proposed: "I hope the Provincial People's Committee will allow Nam Dan district to establish a project to build a landfill for the central area of Nam Dan in Nam Hung commune to relocate the landfill currently located within the project scope. At the same time, establish a project to upgrade Ru Dun Pumping Station and Rao Gang Pumping Station to solve irrigation water problems instead of using water from Thanh Thuy Lake, ensuring the development needs of tourism projects. If the above problems are not resolved, the project will likely be suspended".
Or the Giang Son Hot Mineral Water Tourism Project in Do Luong District, invested by Ha An Investment Company Limited, Hanoi. In 2010, after research and survey, the Company established a detailed plan and was approved by the Provincial People's Committee with a total investment of over 500 billion VND. According to the plan, in the first quarter of 2012, the site clearance work will be completed, but this project is also likely to stop because of "blockage" in the site clearance stage... Why have investment projects in eco-tourism and resort areas not attracted investors?
It is undeniable that Nghe An's tourism potential is large but scattered and not concentrated. Attractive tourist destinations such as Pu Huong and Pu Mat Nature Reserves or natural landscapes such as Xao Va waterfall, Khe Kem waterfall... are far from residential areas, difficult to access, difficult to develop accompanying services, so investors are not interested in exploiting them. Besides, environmental issues at tourist destinations have not been paid attention to by local authorities. At many tourist destinations, there is still a situation of littering and no reasonable sanitation facilities for visitors...
However, the above reasons are only secondary, the most important is still due to administrative procedure problems. According to the reflection of many investors, the provincial leaders are extremely open, creating all favorable conditions, but when solving related administrative procedures at departments, branches and sectors, the problems are due to cumbersome procedures, causing difficulties for investors. Another reason is the lack of strong, close leadership and direction and lack of coordination of local authorities, departments and sectors related to investors when standing up to solve the requests and problems that investors encounter, especially the work of site clearance.
At the recent 2013 Investment Promotion Conference, Mr. Ho Duc Phoc, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, affirmed: To create favorable conditions for investors, the province thoroughly reformed administration, trained high-quality human resources, planned raw material areas and joined hands to remove difficulties for investors. On this occasion, in order to exploit the potential of sea tourism, resort tourism, and eco-tourism, one of Nghe An's strengths, the province called for investment in tourism projects with a total capital of nearly 250 million USD from now until 2015. If successful, the projects will be the highlight to create new, attractive, and unique tourism products for Nghe An and the whole Central region, meeting the needs of sea bathing, sightseeing, resort tourism, culture - festivals, and spirituality of domestic and foreign tourists.
On March 9, 2013, the Provincial People's Committee agreed to allow the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to organize a competition to create tourism logos and souvenir products. The goal is to create new souvenir products, containing the cultural identity of Nghe An, serving the needs of visitors, as well as serving the province's diplomatic and reception activities. The competition does not limit the number of participants or products. |
Tuan Dat - Thanh Hien