The Vietnam National Administration for Tourism (VNAT) leadership, tourist agencies and operators are facing a bid challenge to maximize central region of Vietnam’s tourism potential despite its boasting many world heritage sites and beautiful landscapes, state media said Friday.
Despite a myriad of natural and cultural attractions including four heritage sites: Hue Imperial City (Dec 1993), Hoi An ancient town (Dec 1999), My Son historical relics (Dec 1999) and Phong Nha Ke Bang (July 2003), the region gained less revenue from tourism and associated services than other regions in the country, due to short stays and modest spending by foreign visitors.
Many experts said tough competition, a mismatch between the region’s tourism potential and the volume of visitors, calling it “A waste of resources!” are the reasons.
Another weakness is inadequate tourism advertisement. Tourism promotion, including advertisements and tourism services, is limited to the administrative boundary of each province, while co-operation would benefit the whole region.
Though several meetings were organized to discuss co-operation between tourism agencies from the 11 provinces, no positive results have been reported so far, other than information exchange and experience sharing.
The provinces themselves have to work together to develop a regional master plan for tourism development, experts said, noting that an effective master plan is a prerequisite for successful tourism in the central region.
Local authorities have all necessary conditions to develop comprehensive package tours linking different tourist attractions sites in a “chain” tour. One advantage is that the locations are spread evenly throughout the region. In order to accomplish this, the lack of networking among local tourism agencies needs to be addressed immediately.
They also said, however, regional efforts are not enough; the VNAT should have a role, particularly in coordinating and adopting an effective mechanism for co-operation among the provinces.
With a 1,500 km coastline and a 900 km border with Laos and Cambodia, the center is known as an ideal destination.
Also, Danang beach has been rated by the US magazine Forbes as one of the best six sea-coasts in the world; from Quang Binh to Ninh Thuan, there are many beautiful sections including Cua Tung, Lang Co, Non Nuoc, My Khe, Cua Dai, Nha Trang and Mui Ne beaches.
According to a report presented to a workshop organized by the Department of Tourism and Trade last March, among the 11 central provinces from Quang Tri to Ninh Thuan, the region’s total tourist revenue in 2006 was almost VND3.5 trillion (US$218.8 million), an increase of 30 per cent over the previous year.
The central coast received about 10 per cent of the total number of overseas arrivals to Vietnam, regional statistics showed. (VietNamNet, People’s Army)
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