Building destinations, improving the quality of tourism products

(Baonghean) -With diverse and rich tourism potential, the key tourist areas of our province such as Nam Dan - Vinh - Cua Lo have not yet fully exploited their advantages. In order to promote the intangible and tangible cultural values ​​of these three key tourist areas, in March 2014, the leaders of the three localities had a meeting to agree on a coordination program to improve the quality of destinations, build a cultural tourism environment, and attract more and more domestic and international tourists.

Rich potential

With 3 main tourist areas: Cua Lo, Vinh City, Nam Dan, in recent years, Nghe An has focused on investing and exploiting Cua Lo sea tourism center. If in the early 90s, Cua Lo was just a small fishing village, the main source of livelihood was coastal seafood fishing, there was no concept of tourism development, now Cua Lo has flat horizontal and vertical roads, wide open to welcome visitors from everywhere. Every year, the investment in tourism projects alone has reached billions of VND. In particular, many projects have become highlights for Cua Lo tourism such as: Binh Minh Square, Town Stadium, Song Ngu Island, 18-hole golf course project associated with high-class hotels and motels of Sea Golf Joint Stock Company, ... Coming to Cua Lo, visitors can freely choose attractive tours such as Cua Lo - Uncle Ho's hometown; Cua Lo - Lam River - Cui Temple; Cua Lo - Vinh - Kim Lien relic site - Pu Mat primeval forest; Sightseeing cruise to Lan Chau island - Turtle cave - Tien island... or Cua Lo - Cau Treo border gate - Lac Xao; Cua Lo - Bai Lu...

Lam River road connects Cua Lo - Vinh - Nam Dan with beautiful scenery. Photo: Cao Dinh Dong

Leaving Cua Lo, following the tourist route along the Lam River, visitors will arrive at Cua Hoi Eco-tourism Area. Established in 2000 on an area of ​​5 hectares, hidden under a cool green pine forest with a variety of seafood dining services, staying in stilt houses, fishing in freshwater lakes, swimming in the sea..., this is an ideal resort for those who want to escape the noisy, bustling atmosphere of the city. From here, visitors can explore the mangrove forest that locals call the mangrove forest. The mangrove forest is an ideal eco-tourism and entertainment destination. When the leaves fall, visitors can see the vast forest with tens of thousands of birds perched on the mangrove trees. When the season of flowering and fruiting, visitors can enjoy the natural beauty of the flowers, ripe mangrove fruits and watch flocks of birds hiding in the branches and leaves. However, up to now, this tourism potential still needs to attract appropriate investment so that in the near future, the Hung Hoa mangrove - cajuput forest will become a highlight of tourism along the Lam River along with Quang Trung Temple on Dung Quyet Mountain - the place to worship Nguyen Hue - the talented general of the Tay Son army and the temple of Hoang Muoi - an ancient temple on the famous sacred Lam River.

Vinh tourism is not only a destination on the North-South highway but also attracts domestic and international investors with its available potential. There are large cultural works worthy of the region such as Ho Chi Minh Square, Central Park, ancient citadel gate, General Museum, Soviet Museum... If you are a shopaholic, coming to Vinh you can choose items at BigC, Metro, Intimex Supermarkets... And Vinh cuisine will satisfy visitors with seasonal rustic dishes such as eel porridge, cuđơ candy, Xa Đoài oranges...

The focus of Nghe An tourism is still Nam Dan - the hometown of President Ho Chi Minh. Being the land known as "Nam Dan, the birthplace of saints", the cultural heritage value left by our ancestors on this land is quite dense: Kim Lien historical and cultural relic site; Uncle Ho's paternal and maternal homelands, the tomb of Ha Thi Hy - Uncle Ho's grandmother, the tomb of Hoang Thi Loan - his mother... This place is also the hometown of King Mai, La Son Phu Tu Nguyen Thiep, Phan Boi Chau... Along with that are famous pagodas and communal houses such as Hoanh Son communal house, Trung Can communal house, Vien Quang pagoda, Dai Tue pagoda... Every year, this land hosts many large-scale festival activities, attracting tourists from the province, the country and international visitors to visit. In the direction of tourism development, Nam Dan is focusing on attracting investment projects in Trang Den lake eco-tourism area - a project located in a complex of projects on the tourist route along National Highway 46 and Ho Chi Minh road.

Link for development

Tourism is a special industry that needs cooperation, otherwise it will be difficult to develop. Identify cooperation to improve the quality of destinations, cooperation to jointly build a cultural tourism environment typical of the 3 regions in particular, for Nghe An in general. In mid-March 2014, the leaders of the 3 districts had a meeting to agree on the main contents of cooperation in tourism development: That is to promote the potentials and strengths of tourism of the 3 regions to build sustainable destination brands, creating a spillover effect to other localities in the province. All 3 regions will select areas and points with outstanding values ​​to focus on investing in building synchronous infrastructure. Direct relevant levels and sectors to ensure good security and order, maintain environmental sanitation and landscape, healthy cultural environment, contribute to building the image of destinations and improving the quality of local tourism products and services. At the same time, choose a suitable location in the central area of ​​Vinh City, Nam Dan or Cua Lo Town to plan an area to introduce products (specialties of each region), encourage and create favorable conditions for businesses to participate in displaying, introducing and selling typical products of each locality.

Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong - Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism said: The 3 regions linking together to develop to create typical tourism products is an appropriate step in the process of building product brands for Nghe An tourism. For example, when coming to Nam Dan, tourists can buy and visit typical specialties of Vinh City, Cua Lo Town and vice versa. That has contributed to promoting products for the 3 regions in the same destination. Thus, tourists will be more interested because they can freely choose our diverse and rich tourism products.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong - owner of Yen Huong seafood shop in block 7, Nghi Thuy, Cua Lo town - a family with a tradition of processing fish sauce and seafood for decades, is excited to know that in the coming time, the products of her family in particular, Nghi Thuy craft village in general, will be introduced at booths specializing in selling local specialties in Nam Dan - Uncle Ho's hometown and in Vinh city. Mr. Tran Anh Tuan - Deputy Head of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Cua Lo said: starting from the 2014 tourist season, Cua Lo will plan a booth specializing in selling typical specialties of the three regions of Nam Dan, Vinh city and Cua Lo town. Coming to the booth, in addition to sightseeing, choose products of Nam Dan such as Nam Nghia tamarind, soy sauce, kudzu; Vinh city has Xa Doai orange; Cua Lo has fish sauce, dried seafood such as squid, shrimp, fish, prawns ...

In addition, the booth also introduces tours and tourist routes connecting 3 regions such as Cua Lo - Ho Chi Minh Square - Kim Lien relic site; Cua Lo - Cua Hoi (tourist route along Lam River) - Kim Lien relic site... and other cultural and spiritual tours such as Cua Lo Port - Nguyen Xi Temple - Van Loc Temple - Vinh Citadel - Soviet Nghe Tinh Museum - Tomb of Mrs. Hoang Thi Loan - Kim Lien relic site - King Mai's tomb... In particular, traditional craft village products such as fish sauce, various types of shrimp paste... of Cua Lo will be selected by the town from the products of some traditional families in the craft villages. In the short term, these products will be labeled by that family. In the long term, the town will definitely implement product trademark registration for fish sauce and other products such as shrimp, dried squid, dried fish, various types of shrimp paste...

However, to promote the effectiveness of the 3 regions in linking to build destinations, it is thought that all 3 districts need to identify their strengths to complement the localities in the linking region. For example, Cua Lo must build a green - clean - beautiful marine tourism environment. Coming to Cua Lo, visitors will enjoy various types of resort tourism, swimming, entertainment, shopping specializing in seafood specialties. And coming to the city. Vinh, visitors will be able to visit and shop at supermarkets, visit streets specializing in electronics with a variety of products... Coming to Nam Dan - a countryside rich in cultural traditions, visitors will be immersed in the scenery of the countryside, which is Uncle Ho's paternal and maternal hometowns, where there are cool lotus ponds, quiet village roads shaded by star apples, green bamboo, and rice fields stretching as far as the eye can see... Visitors' souls will seem to settle in the space filled with the scent of agarwood at Kim Lien Relic Site when listening to the narration, choking back the flow of time to remember the Father of the nation. Nam Dan also attracts visitors with rustic, rural specialties such as lotus tea, kudzu, peanut candy, tamarind sauce, Nam Anh persimmons, star apples... And the melodies of the Vi Phuong Vai singing in ancient communal houses...

When all three regions have built their own typical specialties, the connection and coordination will certainly be much more effective. At that time, travel companies will also have more opportunities to introduce and promote destination products.

Thanh Thuy