Promoting potential in Nghe An

(Baonghean) - Comrade Nguyen Huu Tuy - Deputy Secretary of the Town Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Committee of Hoang Mai Town answered an interview with Nghe An Newspaper

PV:As a young town, not only known as a land with great potential for industrial development, Hoang Mai Town also has its own strengths in tourism development, especially sea tourism, spiritual tourism... Could you elaborate more on those strengths and potentials?

Comrade Nguyen Huu Tuy:Hoang Mai Town stretches along both sides of National Highway 1A, is the northernmost point of Nghe An province, with a convenient transportation system from the South to the North, connecting from the coastal plain to the districts and towns of Western Nghe An, trading with Nghi Son Economic Zone (Thanh Hoa) and with Dong Hoi Port in the near future. With a coastline of more than 18 km, Hoang Mai Town is known for the Quynh Phuong and Quynh Lien beach tourism areas, where there are clean, smooth sand beaches, clear water, and suitable salinity for swimming and relaxing. Hoang Mai sea has abundant and rich aquatic and seafood resources... Supporting is the seascape of Chay mountain, Xuoc mountain, Rong mountain (Quynh Loc commune, Quynh Lap) with vast green forests. Besides, there is the Hoang Mai river system and the Le canal like a soft silk strip flowing through the town, Vuc Mau lake with a reserve of 75 million m3 and a diverse ecosystem, which are natural advantages bestowed on Hoang Mai - the land at the head of Nghe An.

Leaders of Hoang Mai town presented flowers to sponsors at the opening ceremony of Hoang Mai Tourism 2015. Photo: VH

In addition, Hoang Mai Town has 10 historical relics, of which 4 are ranked at the national level and famous landscapes such as Bat Nha Pagoda, Can Mon Pagoda, Vu Temple, Xuan Uc Temple, Hoa Tien Cave and especially the most sacred Con Temple in Nghe An. With natural advantages, for generations, fishing, seafood processing, clean vegetable production... have become traditional occupations of the people, craft villages with branded products such as Quynh Di fish sauce, Quynh Lien clean vegetables, Soi village wine. Hoang Mai people are simple, sincere and hospitable. The above highlights show that Hoang Mai Town has all the elements: favorable weather - favorable terrain - favorable people to develop tourism.

PV:Dear comrade! In nearly 2 years of establishment, with many initial difficulties, how has Hoang Mai Town built a strategy for tourism development?

Comrade Nguyen Huu Tuy:Although it has been established for less than 2 years, the Town's leaders have focused on building a project to develop Hoang Mai Town for the period 2014 - 2020 and the following years, in which it clearly defines the direction and implements many synchronous solutions to develop tourism. The Town identifies this as one of the important contents for the locality to carry out its "mission": "to be one of the 3 growth poles, creating momentum for socio-economic development of Nghe An province" in the spirit of Resolution 11 of the Provincial Party Committee on the development of Hoang Mai Town, while contributing to the whole province's successful implementation of Resolution 26 of the Politburo on Nghe An. However, the Town. Hoang Mai has encountered many difficulties of a young town, such as no overall planning, lack of and weak infrastructure, limited investment capital for development... Gradually overcoming difficulties, with the attention and support of the province and ministries, branches, the town is actively completing the overall planning for socio-economic development, general planning for town development, adjusting the planning for marine tourism, planning 3 relics: Hoa Tien Cave, expanding Con Temple and Vu Temple; focusing on mobilizing resources to invest in building many important infrastructure works. Thanks to that, the socio-economic development in the past 2 years has developed rapidly, national defense and security have been maintained. Thanks to the good work of promoting potential, especially the Con Temple Festival and the opening of the annual tourist season, Hoang Mai tourism has achieved many positive results. The number of tourists to Hoang Mai town has increased continuously, especially at the beginning of the year, Con Temple Festival and visitors coming to relax, travel, and swim in the summer. If in 2013, the number of tourists to Hoang Mai town was 150,000, in 2014 the number of tourists increased to over 250,000. Revenue from tourism in 2014 reached over 88.5 billion VND, an increase of 17% compared to 2013.

However, the town's tourism economy has not developed commensurate with its potential. Tourism infrastructure such as large-scale hotels and restaurants, entertainment areas are still limited and have not met the needs of long-term guests; unique tourist routes and attractions in terms of landscape and eco-tourism have not been formed. Tourism products are still limited and not attractive to tourists. Types of tangible and intangible cultural heritage are still in the potential form.

PV:Resolution No. 11 of the Provincial Party Committee dated September 18, 2014 on building and developing Hoang Mai until 2020 and the following years, mentioned the task of "...building tourism into an important economic sector with rapid and effective development...". In order for the tourism industry to effectively promote the spirit of Resolution 11, what are the goals and solutions for developing the town's tourism economy, comrade?

Comrade Nguyen Huu Tuy:As one of the three economic growth poles of the province, Hoang Mai clearly identifies its responsibility to focus on economic development, in which tourism is a key industry. In the coming time, Hoang Mai strives to become one of the important sea tourism destinations associated with spiritual tourism in the system of spiritual tourism destinations of the whole country in general and the North Central region in particular. Effectively exploit the potential factors of the sea, rivers, lakes, dams, historical relics, revolutionary relics, culture, festivals ... to create unique and attractive tourism products. Focus on attracting investment in developing sea tourism areas, associated with the relic sites of Con Temple, Can Mon Pagoda and Bat Nha Pagoda; eco-tourism sites along Hoang Mai River up to Vuc Mau Lake; historical relic sites such as Hoa Tien Cave, the evidence site of 230 leprosy patients in Quynh Lap commune who were massacred during the US bombing... Strive to attract tourists to increase by an average of 15-20%/year, corresponding to an increase in tourism revenue of over 25%, in order to create a breakthrough in tourism development, contributing to promoting the economic restructuring of the town.

Boat racing at the 2015 Con Temple Festival. Photo: Viet Hung

Accordingly, the Town has identified a group of solutions to focus on implementing from now until 2020:

Firstly: Complete planning, focus on investing in technical infrastructure, social infrastructure serving tourism such as lighting, transportation, etc.; synchronously develop marine economy, including fishing and aquaculture, seafood to supply not only tourists to Hoang Mai town but also to process into high-end products, supplying the market nationwide.

Second: Strengthen state management of tourism, ensuring a civilized and clean tourism environment.

Third: Promote investment in marine tourism associated with spiritual tourism, develop various types of tourism (culinary tourism, resort tourism, cultural and festival tourism, historical tourism, eco-tourism), develop a network of stops, tours, routes, attractions and diversify tourism products. Invest in developing traditional craft villages associated with tourism activities such as fish sauce villages, wine making villages, seafood processing villages, ecological garden models combined with tourism.

Fourth: Strengthen tourism promotion and develop diverse tourism products (sea tourism, craft village tourism, river tourism, religious tourism...).

Fifth: Promote training and development of human resources to serve tourism development. Have policies to encourage training and foster knowledge about tourism and encourage businesses to have plans to train and foster professional skills, communication skills, and cultural behavior for employees, especially restaurant and hotel service staff.

With the potential and determination to exploit and promote strengths, along with the support of the Central and the province, certainly in a short time, the Party Committee, government and people of the town will build Hoang Mai town into an ideal and promising tourist destination, contributing to making the land of Nghe An more glorious.

PV:Thank you comrade!

PV(Perform)