The central province of Quang Nam has set a target of developing
sustainable tourism associated with the preservation and promotion of
cultural values so it can better contribute to local economic growth.
Report by the Vietnam Economic News.
In the first
three quarters of 2013, Quang Nam received 2.6 million tourists, a rise
of 19.32 percent compared with the same period last year; revenue from
tourism reached over 1.23 trillion VND (57.81 million USD), up 25.9
percent. Its initial efforts to promote sustainable tourism development
have brought in satisfactory results.
In the period
under review, the ancient city of Hoi An alone received 1.3 million
tourists, an increase of 22.9 percent compared with the same period last
year. It had intensified the dissemination of tourism information while
at the same time concentrating on tourism promotion activities and
diversifying the sources of investment in tourism in order to improve
the quality of tourist services, especially those in the Cham islands.
Investment in the construction of tourism
infrastructure and tourist sites as well as the restoration of world
heritage sites has been promoted. With five tourism projects officially
coming into operation in the first nine months of 2013, Quang Nam
province currently has 123 accommodation facilities with 5,153 rooms.
These include four five-star hotels, 11 four-star hotels and 11
three-star hotels.
Quang Nam has reopened some
beaches, put Cua Dai port into stable operation and promoted tourism
development in the Cham islands. As a result of these efforts, in the
first nine months of 2013, Quang Nam welcomed more than 165,000 visitors
to the islands, a rise of over 60,000 visitors compared with 2012 as a
whole (the islands received an average of 2,500 visitors each day).
Many community and ecological tourism development projects have been
developed here. The number of travel companies offering tours to Cua
Dai-Cham islands has by now increased to 40 from seven in late 2012.
Beside these, 15 companies provide dining services and 50 provide
accommodation services in the form of homestay tourism.
According to Quang Nam Culture, Sports and Tourism Department Director
Dinh Hai, the provincial tourism sector is drafting a tourism
development plan to get ready to welcome a wave of investment in the
field of community and ecological tourism; at the same time, the sector
is intensifying communications to improve local people’s awareness about
sustainable tourism development.
Classes have been
opened to provide training for residents in areas around eco-tourist
sites such as Cam Thanh, Cham islands and Tra Nhieu so that they can
know how to properly receive and serve tourists; some workshops were
organised to discuss the conservation of water coconut forests in Cam
Thanh commune; Tran Phu street in Hoi An has been chosen to be built as a
“Global Citizen Street” that meets some criteria in such terms as
heritage protection, green space protection, waste classification
according to 3R (reduce-reuse-recycle) principles, and boycotting
plastic bags.
Quang Nam province is concentrating
on developing community eco-tourism in Tra Nhieu village, Duy Xuyen
district, tours to the Bay Mau coconut forest in Hoi An, the Loc Yen
eco-village in Tien Phuoc district, adventure tourism and tours to
Bhoong village in Dong Giang district.
To promote
sustainable tourism development and become a tourist center for the
central region, Quang Nam province has requested the Ministry of
Culture, Sports and Tourism to provide it with assistance to develop
tourism infrastructure through ODA-funded projects such as building the
tourism infrastructure for Hoi An, the Cu Lao Cham Biosphere Reserve, My
Son sanctuary, Tay Vien hot mineral stream, coastal areas in the city
of Tam Ky, and a human resources training project.-VNA