The northern province of Ninh Binh has huge potential of tourism
development, the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Online Newspaper
reported, adding that t he province’s comparative advantage increased
when the Trang An Ecological Complex was recognised as a World Heritage
site by UNESCO.
Ninh Binh province is endowed with unique and
diverse tourism resources such as Cuc Phuong National Park , Van
Long Nature Reserve, Kenh Ga hot spring, Van Trinh Cave, Phat Diem
Stone Cathedral and the Trang An Ecological Complex.
The
province also has 1,499 relics, of which two relics have been nationally
ranked: Hoa Lu ancient capital and Coc and Trang An Ecological Complex,
a world heritage site (former Trang An – Tam Coc – Bich Dong natural
beauty site).
Ninh Binh has 260 traditional festivals, which are
inherited and have been developed from the traditions and customs of
rice cultivation in Hoa Binh and Dong Son for thousands of years.
Currently, the province has 69 traditional villages, notably Van Lam
embroidery village, Ninh Van stone carvings village, Kim Son sedge fine
art village and Phuc Loc carpentry village.
Besides the enormous
advantages from having beautiful scenery, the province is also proud of
its unique Bai Dinh pagoda, the largest pagoda in Vietnam.
Ninh Binh is located 91 km from Hanoi and has both rail and road
transportation links. It is pretty close to other famous tourist
attractions such as Ha Long Bay, Cat Ba Island.
In recent years,
the number of tourists to Ninh Binh has rapidly grown. In the first six
months of 2014 alone, Ninh Binh welcomed 3.3 million arrivals,
including 268,800 international tourists.
A tourism expert in
Ninh Binh said that the biggest difficulty is the lack of manpower,
particularly skilled workforce. Currently, the province has 11,000
employees involved in the tourism sector.
The province has welcomed around 4.5 million tourists per year, but it has only 42 tour guides.
Vice
Director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism
Duong Thi Thanh said that in the future the department would hire
experts to train their farmers on how to offer community tourism to
tourists, helping create stable income for them.-VNA