Building Nghe An tourism symbol associated with "Nghe An's uniqueness"
(Baonghean.vn) - Nghe An is a province with rich tourism potential, but its development is not commensurate, its growth is unsustainable, the number of international tourists accounts for a low proportion, the attractiveness and diversity of its products have not improved significantly... are the key contents discussed at the Workshop on Exploiting Nghe An's tourism potential, held on the morning of May 16.
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| Overview of the workshop. Photo: Phuoc Anh |
Attending the workshop, on the Central side, there were comrades: Nguyen The Trung - Member of the Central Theoretical Council, former member of the Party Central Executive Committee, former Deputy Head of the Central Mass Mobilization Commission, former Secretary of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee; Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Dinh Thien - Director of the Vietnam Economic Institute; Dr. Ha Van Sieu - Deputy General Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.
On the side of Nghe An province, there were comrades: Nguyen Xuan Duong - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Le Minh Thong - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; representatives of departments, branches, sectors and localities in the province.
The workshop was also attended by experts from international and domestic cooperation organizations and universities; corporations, tourism businesses, and airlines.
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| Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Minh Thong delivered the opening speech at the workshop. Photo: Phuoc Anh |
Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Minh Thong affirmed that Nghe An is a province with potential for tourism development with more than 2,600 historical relics and scenic spots; diverse cultural identities of ethnic groups; endowed with natural resources with 82 km of coastline, and the Western Biosphere Reserve recognized by UNESCO as a world natural biosphere reserve...
However, Nghe An tourism has not developed commensurate with its potential. The Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee emphasized that through the workshop, Nghe An province hopes to receive open and responsible discussions to discuss, agree, and propose appropriate directions and solutions in the coming time.
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| Many delegates said that sea tourism is the focus of Nghe An tourism but it is still not really attractive and lacks services to attract visitors. Photo: Thanh Cuong |
At the workshop, delegates frankly discussed many "hot" issues about the current state of tourism development in Nghe An.
Associate Professor Dr. Pham Trung Luong - Vietnam Tourism Training Association said that Nghe An tourism is facing a number of challenges in destination competition from the perspective of tourism product development, especially specific tourism products.
“Most tourists coming to Cua Lo will come to Kim Lien, but that is only as part of the tour; meanwhile, many tourists come to Kim Lien only with the respect of people visiting Uncle Ho's hometown, not with the mindset of tourists coming to Nghe An to experience the unique tourism product focusing on world celebrities on the traditional culture honored by UNESCO” - Mr. Pham Trung Luong said.
Dr. Ha Van Sieu - Deputy General Director of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism also said that Nghe An tourism has many problems that need to be resolved such as quality of tourism human resources, promotion and product development linkage.
“Nghe An needs to shift from developing tourism in breadth to depth, diversifying services and developing more suitable tourism products to overcome seasonality,” said Mr. Sieu.
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| Delegates visit the booth displaying Nghe An tourism products on the sidelines of the conference. Photo: Phuoc Anh |
Many delegates who are tourism experts and leaders of tourism businesses also raised many concerns about the proportion of international visitors and the number of visitors staying in Nghe An. In 2017, Nghe An welcomed 5.6 million visitors, of which more than 2 million were visitors who only came to visit, not to stay. Along with that, international visitors accounted for a very low proportion, only about more than 109,000 visitors.
Tourism services are also a difficult problem because currently, Nghe An tourism has almost no night services, overnight guests have no entertainment destination, causing limited revenue from tourism services.
Summarizing the workshop, Associate Professor Dr. Tran Dinh Thien - Director of the Vietnam Economic Institute commented: Overall, the current level of tourism development in Nghe An is at a low level, monotonous, with few types of high-class, attractive tourism; the "ready-made" nature of tourism activities is high...
Associate Professor Dr. Tran Dinh Thien said that the general vision of Vietnamese tourism in general and Nghe An tourism in particular is problematic, even though tourism has been identified as a key economic sector.
Currently, the tourism development orientation needs to determine the advantages and differences of Nghe An, accordingly, select and build the symbol of Nghe An tourism associated with the characteristics of Nghe An: land of learning - spiritual land - convergence of the quintessence on the background of "green mountains and blue water". Besides, it is necessary to have an international airport of the right level; a national tourism development program; a regional tourism connection program with Vinh city and Uncle Ho's hometown as the central coordinates.
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| Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Xuan Duong expressed his thanks to experts and scientists for their contributions to the development of Nghe An tourism. Photo: Phuoc Anh |
Thanking the experts and scientists for their frank and profound comments contributing to the development of tourism in the province, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Xuan Duong affirmed that the province will fully absorb the opinions and incorporate them into the program and actions in the coming time.
On this occasion, the People's Committee of Nghe An province signed a Memorandum of Understanding on strategic cooperation with Vietravel Vietnam Tourism and Transport Marketing Joint Stock Company and Saigon Tourist Corporation - Saigontourist, to promote investment in key fields and projects, create development momentum, attract new investment and develop key economic sectors of the province.
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| Signing of strategic cooperation agreement with tourism businesses. Photo: Phuoc Anh |
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5 "must-have" issues to develop Nghe An tourism:
- Strengthen propaganda work and raise awareness about tourism for key officials in the political system and all classes of people.
- Strengthen state management of tourism.
- Have reasonable policies to encourage businesses and economic sectors at home and abroad, inside and outside the province to invest in tourism business.
- Promote training, fostering and developing human resources for tourism.
- Promote the development of tourism infrastructure.
