Central Vietnam pursues tourism
10/06/07 (GMT+7)
Central Vietnam tourism, endowed by mother nature, Central Vietnam boasts several world heritage sites and beautiful landscapes but how to maximise the tourist potential of the region is a question for the Vietnam National Administration for Tourism (VNAT) leadership, tourist agencies and operators.
Unfulfilled potential
The region is home to four world heritage sites, Hue Imperial City (December 1993), Hoi An ancient town Vietnam(December 1999), My Son historical relecs (December 1999) and Phong Nha Ke Bang (July 2003).
Also Da Nang beach has been rated by the US magazine Forbes as one of the best six sea-coasts in the world; from Quang Binh to Ninh Thuan, there are many beautiful sections including Cua Tung, Lang Co, Non Nuoc, My Khe, Cua Dai, Nha Trang and Mui Ne beaches Vietnam.
The number of tourists visiting the region has increased significantly in recent years and the VNAT forecasts that it will remain an attractive destination to visitors in the future.
However, revenue from tourism and associated services is still small; attributed to short stays and modest spending by foreign visitors.
In addition, tourism revenues varies from one province to another due to competition between the provinces, which seriously affects the exploitation of their strengths.
According to many experts, there is a mismatch between the region’s tourism potential and the volume of visitors. "A waste of resources!" said the experts.
According to a report presented to a workshop, organised by the Department of Tourism and Trade last March, among the 11 Central provinces from Quang Tri to Ninh Thuan, the region’s total tourist revenue in 2006 was almost VND3.5tril ($218.8mil), an increase of 30% over the previous year.
In 2006, the region welcomed 5.2mil visitors, an increase of 18.3% compared to that of 2005.
However this growth is mostly Lam Dong and Khanh Hoa provinces, which reaper VND2.5tril in tourism earnings and accounted for 71.43% of the region’s revenue.
The chain gang
The central region has all conditions necessary to develop comprehensive package tours that links the different tourist attractions sites in a "chain" tour. One advantage is that the locations are spread evenly throughout the region.
In fact, the lack of networking among local tourism agencies is a problem that needs to be addressed immediately. For example, a tour of Quang Binh - Hue - Quang Nam - Nha Trang or vice versa could be arranged easily and included in tour itineraries if local operators sat and worked together.
Another weakness is inadequate tourist advertisement. Tourism promotion, including advertisements and tourism services, is limited to the administrative boundary of each province, while co-operation would benefit the whole region.
Co-operation is key
Though several meetings were organised to discuss co-operation between tourism agencies from the 11 provinces, no positive results have been reported so far, other than information exchange and experience sharing.
Recently leadership of Hue, Da Nang and Quang Nam recognised the need to co-operate in tourism development and, at an economic forum in Hoi An last April, tourism co-operation was highlighted and became a hot topic for discussion.
Finally, the participants recognised the imperative need to pull together to build a regional tourism trade mark.
The concept is not new, in 2004 VNAT launched the "Central Heritage Road" programme with the aim of linking tourism activities in the provinces together. But unfortunately, sometime afterwards, the programme was abandoned due to indifference.
Again, the region’s local leaders have seen the need to work together in tourism promotion. But regional efforts are not enough, the VNAT should have a role, particularly in co-ordinating and adopting an effective mechanism for co-operation across the provinces.
Meanwhile, the provinces themselves have to sit together to discuss a regional master plan for tourism development.
An effective master plan is a pre-requisite for the success of tourism in the central region.
(Source: Viet Nam News)
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