Julio Benedetti, a tourism consultant and blogger from Brazil,
explained on Viet Nam News why tourists can play part in lifting
standards of living.
It’s not a surprising fact to
hear that Vietnam has become one of the main booming destinations in
Asia. The number of international arrivals in 2012 grew by 13.86 percent
over 2011, and for the first eight months of 2013 it already represents
a 7.9 percent growth over the same period last year, according to the
Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.
But this
is not the only good news for Vietnam tourism: omitted from these
statistics, there is a bright future being built by expats and
Vietnamese initiatives all over the country that are directly or
indirectly related to the tourism industry – an activity that, as most
experts would agree, can have a powerful role in increasing the life
standards of residents of any destination.
Hanoi-based Bloom Microventures is a good example: founded by a group of
foreigners and currently managed by a Vietnamese team, this non-profit
social business combines micro-financing and responsible tourism with
poverty-fighting day tours, through which tourists have a chance to meet
local small-scale women farmers and experience their daily way of life
in their own environment, while at the same time contributing loan
capital to these agro-entrepreneurs to help them get out of poverty.
By converting the tour fees paid by tourists into
micro-loans for these local entrepreneurs, Bloom Microventures provides a
way for tourists to get personally involved and help marginalised
people who, even in regions with high levels of tourism development,
would not benefit from tourism otherwise. It’s a win-win situation for
both sides.
But tourism is a broad activity that
also depends upon and influences different individuals and types of
businesses, such as local transportation, small shops, markets, local
producers, manufacturers – and even fashion.
Fashion4Freedom (F4F), a socially-minded design house focused on
revitalising heritage art in Vietnam, works with a network of over 40
villages and small businesses in central Vietnam that include skilled
artisans, responsibly sourced materials, socially conscious labour
practices and the support of semi-government owned factories.
As Ho Chi Minh City-based Rachael Carson explains, F4F is making a
difference by elevating and preserving heritage craftsmanship through
high-end products that are intended to appeal to tourists while at the
same time honouring the history and artistry of local producers,
focusing especially on villages whose cultural traditions and
livelihoods are near extinction – helping them to reach international
standard and international buyers.
Good examples
come also from central Vietnam: The French Bakery (Banh Mi Phap) has
been selling bakery products not only for locals but also for tourists
interested in adding a French taste to their trip.
But behind the façade of the shop itself is a larger Franco-Vietnamese
project involving a school where Vietnamese apprentices, after 19 months
of training and real life practice through internships, are given the
opportunity to start a new life. Since 1999, The Bakery has trained
almost 70 apprentices, who are now mostly working in high standard
hotels throughout Vietnam.
Whoever has visited
Vietnam will agree that the country – perhaps even more than others in
the region – is in the process of balancing tradition and modernity in
an ever-more globalised world; a world in which tourism is in the middle
of it all, because its complex management can influence the life of its
residents in a positive or negative way.
But with
the examples above, one can clearly see that it’s perfectly possible to
find modern solutions for old problems, preserving the local culture and
bringing traditions back to life – and doing so while keeping tourists
and locals satisfied.
Now it’s up to Vietnam to come
up with more initiatives. After all, isn’t it a perfect combination for
such a thriving destination?.-VNA