Northwest tourism to be developed, says official
Northwest tourism to be developed, says official
Viet Nam has targeted turning tourism into the spearheard economic sector of the northwest region by 2030, deputy head of the Northwest Steering Committee Hau A Lenh said on Monday.
At a conference on developing tourism into the leading economic sector of the region in the next 13 years, Lenh said it was necessary for local authorities to mobilise investment to boost tourism, create jobs and reduce poverty for local residents.
Many delegates said that tourism development in the northwest was restricted and had not tapped its potential. Although ethnic minority culture was rich and unique, the region still faced difficulties such as poor socio-economic infrastructure and transport links.
They also mentioned a disturbing fact that in recent years, many tourist destinations in the region had faced environmental pollution due to littering. Overcharging and cheating visitors had affected the image of the region.
Vu The Binh, Vice Chairman of Vietnam Tourism Association said that the most important factor to develop tourism in the northwest was co-ordination.
He said locals seemed to stay out of tourism services as the benefits to them from tourism was limited, adding that community tourism was good for the region’s tourism, but had not been exploited effectively.
In addition, a shortage of skilled human resources for local tourism was an important issue. The region could not build a sustainable market due to this weakness, he added.
To improve regional tourism, Ngo Hoai Trung, deputy head of Vietnam Tourism Administration suggested six solutions, including improving people’s awareness on the importance of boosting tourism, improving the quality of tourism resources, increasing the quality of services, promoting the regional tourism potential, building tourism indicators suitable with the reality of regional tourism and ensuring sustainable development for tourism.
Lenh of the Northwest Steering Committee said the committee would co-ordinate with localities to develop tourism development strategies and tourism products for each locality.
In addition, apart from improving transport infrastructure to tourist sites, it is necessary to strengthen environmental management and ensure security for visitors.
Many delegates suggested promoting regional tourism to attract more domestic and international tourists and encourage and support the development of natural and eco-friendly tourism such as ecotourism, village tourism and adventure tourism.
Lenh said the committee would listen to the opinions of delegates and propose tourism development policies to the Government.
