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The largest tourism development project in Vietnam will start in
eight northwestern mountain provinces next year.
Local authorities, officially from the Vietnam National Administration of
Tourism (VNAT), tourism operators and training institutions in the region
gathered in Lao City on December 27 to discuss the plan.
Accordingly, the Northwest Travel Destination Management Board will be set up to
co-ordinate inter-regional tourism. Community-based tourism projects will be
developed in ethnic villages to preserve local culture and protect the
environment.
There will be strong support in promoting tourism of the eight provinces on
their official websites. Representatives agreed for the need to build unique
tourism products to harness the cultural and natural advantages of the region.
VNAT Deputy director Hoang Thi Diep said that the present approach to visitors
did not meet demand, despite the large potential. “We will work with local
authorities to sort out the obstacles hampering tourism development and find out
solutions,” she said.
Representatives said one of the top challenges is the low quality of human
resources. Most people went into community-based tourism without any training.
This made training an important component of the project. The northwestern
provinces – Dien Bien, Yen Bai, Son La, Hoa Binh, Phu Tho, Ha Giang, Lai Chau
and Lao Cai –this year received more than a million tourists who spent trillions
of Vietnamese dongs.
The new project will be funded by a EUR11 million (US$14.3 million) grant from
the European Union and EUR1.1 million (US$1.43 million) from the Vietnamese
Government.
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